Nine and ten-year-olds are using math to do stuff. They’ll design a brand new pattern the world has never seen, and then devise a scheme to beat you at cards.
A propos of nothing one day, I ask Griffin (9 years old at the time, finishing up fourth grade) a question. Me: Griff, imagine you are baking cookies and you need $latex \frac{3}{4}$ cup of sugar, but you only have a $latex \frac{1}{2}$ cup measure. How would...
How is the alphabet like or unlike the counting sequence, and what comes after the letter Z?
The following conversation took place in the run-up to our annual summer camping trip recently. Rachel has no interest in camping, so this ritual is all mine. I started the little ones young with a one-night trip within an hour from home so that we could come home...
I told an abbreviated version of the following story on my math-teacher blog, where I used it to drive home a point to my colleagues. This version is for parents. --- My wife had been out of town for several days. I was tired of doing all the cooking and dishes. It...
It has been a long, busy semester for me in my community college work. Many interesting and productive projects, lots of interesting and challenging teaching problems. But I am tired. Wiped out and exhausted. So I devised a plan the other evening when Tabitha...
