My child has been playing with Perler beads for a while now making all sorts of things, including a map of Minecraft. So when I suggested making a multiplication table, the kid was very interested. Except a) I didn’t have a clear idea of how to make multiplication tables out of multi-colored beads and b) […]
Have you ever wondered why the Oriental Soroban abacus has 4 separate beads? It is in base 10, not 4 or 5, so why organize it that way? In response to yesterday’s post Hand tricks! Alexander Bogomolny linked his page explaining finger math. As I looked at that neat way of counting to 99 […]
Using one’s hands is practically intuitive in the math world. Counting on one’s fingers is the most basic mathematical practice one could think of. But there is other more complex math you and your kid can do with your hands! Images from Wikipedia.org For example, you are hardly limited to counting to 10. If you […]
Today, our guest is Joey Grether, an unbridled idealist, parent, and teacher. His journey to math play with kids started with designing tools and devices. Have you ever wondered how Montessori designed all the activities with her beads, or how Cuisenaire came up with the base ten rods? Here is Joey’s story about a colorful […]
