Do you want to enroll in Problem Solving for the Young, the Very Young, and the Young at Heart?

**Question 1.** I'm a long-time homeschooler, and most of my kids are now grown. I like to read (ideal vacation: an enormous library, complete with a comfy chair by the fireplace), and I like to play around with math ideas -- for instance, I think Tanton's *Math Without Words* is great! I heard about this course through Moby's newsletter. And I have a blog at [ letsplaymath.net][1]. **Question 2.** So far, the only guinea pig I have found for sure is my youngest daughter, age 14. She has a good understanding of math up to about algebra 1, but what she really loves is reading and writing fantasy fiction. I'm trying to get a group of her friends together, but they are all so busy in the summer, and I haven't heard back from anyone yet. I've been getting questions from friends at church with K-1st grade youngsters they are considering homeschooling. I think I may try to gather up a group of them to meet for "math playgroup in the park" -- Will the projects will be adaptable for something like that, out in the breeze and with limited supplies? This would be my first time trying to do a math circle with little kids rather than middle school, so I'm a bit nervous about how I will adjust to that. But if all else fails, we can always take a nature walk! **Question 3.** I'm looking forward to creative ways of looking at math. So far, everything I've seen from the three course organizers has been inspirational, so even though I don't really know what to expect, I'm sure it will be great! **Question 4.** I'll do my best to participate fully. Even if neither of my potential groups work out, my daughter and I can try the problems ourselves and report in. [1]: http://letsplaymath.net/

**Question 1:** I'm a Canadian mathematics educator, interested in exploring new ways of engaging teachers, parents and their children in mathematics. I like to build mathematical representations using computer code, and unique ways for children to access mathematical thinking in a variety of different mediums. **Question 2:** I have two sons, one of whom is 6 years old, and other of whom is just a little bit more than a year old. My eldest son likes everything he has learned about math so far, and I'm hoping to enrich his understanding of what it is to do mathematics. He especially loves building and making things. **Question 3:** I'm really hoping to find out ways we can use this incredible tool, the Internet, to reach parents and children and have them see mathematics in a different way. I'm hoping that from my participation in this course, I can come away with ideas in how I can work with parents and their children in other ways. **Question 4:** I do so commit, and in my role as a Mathematics program developer, I'm sure I can find ways to use these problems locally.

**Question 1:** I am a special education middle school math teacher. I am a self-proclaimed technology nerd and math geek. I love finding new ways to engage my students with technology. I heard about this course through a blog I read (can't remember which one, sorry). I just started to blog - I wrote an end of the year summary of my first year with iPads to get started and I plan to continue to blog in September. **Question 2:** My students that I will be working with are the kids I have for summer school. They are special ed and they are going into 6th grade in the fall. **Question 3:** I am hoping to find new ways to teach problem solving to my students. This is always a difficult task for special education students, and if I can help them learn some new strategies, that would be great! **Question 4:** I will definitely try the ten problems with my students and report back!

**Question 1:** I am a long-time homeschooler and math teacher who has been leading math circles in Philadelphia for the past 2 years. I like to spend times in the outdoors. Games I like include soccer, scrabble, jigsaw puzzles, and collaborative improvisational storytelling. I heard of this project from the Moebius Noodles site. I blog about math circles here: http://talkingsticklearningcenter.org/category/math-circle-blog/. **Question 2:** The kids in my circle for the summer are my 2 kids, one going into 4th grade and one going into 9th. I am hoping that they will each have a friend over to do the activities. Both of my girls have strong conceptual understandings of mathematical reasoning, but are often inefficient in problem solving. The older one is interested in becoming a mathematician and/or math circle leader herself, possibly, and wants exposure to as much non-traditional math education as possible, and has friends who really like math. The younger one needs exposure to math beyond arithmetic, and has a few friends who hate math. **Question 3**: I want the opportunity to work with Drs. Droujkova and Tanton. The work of both of them has greatly informed my teaching, and I hope that more of their mojo will rub off onto me via this course. **Question 4**: Yes, I commit to all 4 tasks described.

Question 1: I'm a math teacher who has a passion for improving how we teach math. I love working with kids (and adults) and really enjoy reading, writing and researching (I'm a bit of a math geek). I enjoy sudoku, scrabble, brain teasers. I heard about the course through the math teachers listserve. I don't currently have an active site or blog. Question 2: I will be working with my 5 year old niece, Jayda, who loves to dance, a friend's daughter, Katya who is 9 and enjoys sports and playing piano and my friend, Vanessa, who is 34 and enjoys music and cooking. Question 3: I'm not sure what to expect from the course but was hoping to learn new ways of adapting problems so that I can apply it to classroom teaching (differentiating). I also am trying to teach through problem solving more often and so am eager to learn more about how people at different skill levels approach the problems. Question 4: Yes, I can commit to these conditions. I am interested in doing a phd or doctorate in mathematics education, so this will also be a way for me to explore a project of this kind. Thank you for the opportunity.

Question 1. I am a math teacher turned tech integration specialist. I spend most of my time reading and writing about education on my blog http://www.philosophywithoutahome.com/blog/ When not doing that I coach whatever sports the kids are playing at the moment. When the invintation to the course came through the Moebiusnoodles newsletter I jumped at the chance to join up. Question 2. My wife and my two sons will join us on this adventure. She likes black and white movies. The 8 year old spends about 2 hours a day on Minecraft and the 6 year old kind of follows his lead. He just doesn’t have as much stamina for the Minecraft. The older son is very polite and sociable, but his little brother tends to be more independent but reserved. Question 3. I expect to see a lot of math in unexpected places. Question 4. I agree and look forward to the learning experience.

Question 1. I am a secondary math and science teacher. When I'm not teaching I spend my time playing with my two kids ages 4 and 5. They mainly like constructing with building blocks, working on art projects, and now that it's summer - playing outside. I heard about the course through James Tanton's posting on twitter. Question 2. My two kids will be participating in the course. The five year old is starting kindergarten in the fall. I have been teaching him math concepts through games and puzzles which he has enjoyed. At the moment he's very interested in the idea of infinity. The four year old copies everything her big brother does. Some of their friends might be joining us some of the weeks. Question 3. I'm looking forward to learning new approaches to teaching math, both for my own children and for my classroom. Question 4. I agree and look forward to participating in this project.

**Question 1.** I am an expat Brit currently living in California and homeschooling my seven year old and five year old twins, when I'm not running around after their almost one year old brother. I have always loved maths although I did not pursue formal study of it beyond high school. At the moment I am spending a lot of time reading about homeschooling as I have only recently taken my oldest out of public school, and am indulging my research obsessive side, largely on the internet. However I still manage to find time to read (always), do a bit of gardening, hiking, and knitting. I like logic puzzles, word puzzles and paradoxes; I also love symmetry and patterns. I love playing with those little wooden tiles and making mandalas! Oh, and I heard of the course through the Moebius Noodles newsletter. **Question 2.** I am hoping to share the course with my local homeschool co-op, so the participants may vary. However my three girls at least should be consistent attenders. The oldest loves reading, daydreaming and making stuff with whatever she finds around the house (a rich resource, as I am not a big tidier). She enjoys stories, talking about ideas and making mathematical discoveries, but hates writing things down and is not overly keen on repetitive computations. Of the twins, one is fairly easy going and also likes patterns and orderliness. She is usually keen to join in with whatever is going on but can be a bit slow to warm up to new things. The other is rather intense and hates being told what to do. She is not interested in much top down learning but wants to explore her own interests (obsessions?) to the nth degree. She is very sharp but struggles with interpreting and following directions. She may not be the most involved member of the course... And they all love to pretend to be all sorts of things, including the things they actually are. I am also trying to convince my engineer husband to join us. He likes computer programming and algebra (although he hastens to add that, of course, the two things are the same...). **Question 3.** I am expecting some fun mathematical activities and explorations. I am looking forward to the analysis part too, that should be interesting. The one thing I want most is probably to foster a love of mathematics in my daughters - the eldest has had her perception clouded by speed 'math fact' drilling at public school which was about as far from her learning style as it is possible to go. I want the word math(s) to have positive associations for them, as it always had for me (I didn't have speed drills but I thought worksheets were actually kind of fun...). **Question 4** I agree to commit to these goals, and look forward to attempting them!

1. I've had a lifelong interest in math and math education--ranging from majoring in mathematics at University, to teaching elementary school 39 years ago, to starting a local math camp for middle schoolers as a volunteer, three years ago. I enjoy researching and putting together hands-on lesson plans for the camp. The camp website is http://www.YoungMathWizards.com. As time allows, I hope to offer the camp curriculum and organizational strategies to other groups and school districts at no charge. 2. I have a pool of 40 recent graduates from the last two Math Camp sessions to draw from for this course. They are almost all very interested in learning math and have pretty solid math skills. They range in age from 10-15. 3. I hope to learn some new teaching techniques, especially ideas for encouraging open ended small group work, and also new curriculum ideas that I can incorporate into future math camp lessons. 4. I will definitely participate fully in all the goals and objectives as outlined above.

1. Yesterday I found that I'm a mathematical designer! exploring and representing "wonder" of mathematics ... I'm from Iran. I'm interested in computational thinking and TRIZ. I worry about human resource crisis. I mean wasting of talents... I heard about this course from [NaturalMath] group. My favorite games are Sudoku and Qouridor. 2. My students are two brothers. one is in 6th-grade and the older one is in 10th-grade. 3. I want complete achievement and reproducibility of "Why" statement of this course. 4. That's why I'm here! Math ed heroes, thank you for reading my answers!

Question 1. I am a professor of mathematics education -- I design, evaluate, and theorize learning activities. I enjoy thinking about thinking. Here's my [lab page][1]. Question 2. There would about five girls and boys ages 6-9. These are creative children who enjoy construction, technology, science, and nature. Question 3. I want the children to be engaged and fascinated. I want them to want more. Question 4. YES [1]: http://edrl.berkeley.edu/content/dor-abrahamson

Question 1. I have done my MBA in Finance, however, presently work for a science center by the name of Prince Salman Science Oasis (PSSO) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years as a program manager. I enjoy working with kids. We offer different scientific programs and activities at the science center for the kids. You can access our website, www.psso.org.sa I want to initiate a math program in the science center. Lately, my interest has inclined towards math, especially, due to the involvement with my own kids. Your website was recommended to me by Caroline Mukisa who owns Maths Insider during my quest to initiate a math program for kids at PSSO. My present goal is to erase the fear and alienation towards maths amongst the present generation. This could be done so, in my humble opinion, by employing the presently available abundant resources that make the learning fun! Question 2. My own kids are in 7th grade, 5th grade, 2nd grade, 1st grade, and kindergarten - 5 kids. Additionally, there is a great number of kids who visit the science center, who differ in their interest and potential. Question 3. My most important expectation is to eradicate the fear I'd myself developed about math as a child from other kids, commencing from my very own kids. Working with my kids I've witnessed that things that appeared alien to me when I was a kid with respect to math, in reality are not so. I want my kids to develop a liking towards the subject! Question 4. As a matter of fact, I'm rather eager to get involved in such an initiative and try to return back to society of what it had offered me. InshAllah, I will try my best to work with my kids on the said ten problems.

**Question 1. Tell us about yourself. Who are you? What do you like to do? What games or puzzles do you play? How did you hear of this course? Do you have a site or a blog?** *I'm a homeschooler dad whose 3 daughters aren't as interested in math as their dad is. I like to give my kids random math verbal puzzles. My sister told me about the course. I do have a blog, but it isn't connected to my kids schooling. **Question 2. Tell us about the kids (or the grown-up members of your circle). Who are they? What do they like to do? What are their individual peculiarities? How old are they?** I have 3 daughters 11, 9 & 6 who will be participating. The oldest one is very fast at computation, the middle one is very good with concepts. The third one is excited. **Question 3. Tell us about your expectations. What is one thing you want from the course?** I want them to enjoy learning. **Question 4. This course has three goals: 1. To help participants and their kids learn, 2. To make a book about problem-solving, and 3. To do research in mathematics education. Do you commit to adapt the ten problems, try them with local kids, report the results online, and analyze the reports?** I'll do my best.

Q1: I am the mother of a seven year old boy who just finished public first grade. The school was a bad match, so I am beginning the homeschooling journey. By training, I am a botanist. I have always loved algebra and geometry, but never trig or calculus. I love to spend time out doors, play all kinds of board and card games, run, practice TKD, and read. My husband is an engineer and my mother-in-law is a math teacher. I would love to have their facility with numbers. Q2: My seven year-old son loves reading, Legos, and imaginative games. He has tremendous verbal ability, but gets nervous around numbers. He is usually willing to talk through math problems, but shuts down when he becomes frustrated. He hates rote memorization and worksheet repetition. He likes puzzles. Q3: I am looking for new angles from which to approach math. I want it to be fun! Q4: I am fully committed to finishing this program.

Q1. I’m from Cluj-Napoca, Romania. I am a math teacher – I teach lower secondary (12 – 15 years old) and high-school students (15 – 19 years old) and I am a teacher trainer, too. I’m interested in math education – how to engage students in learning math and achieve better results. I published some articles on reading and writing activities in math classes and a book on math lessons & critical thinking skills. I’m also interested in using technology in teaching – I use a Moodle platform for offering individualized support to my students, but I also use some Geogebra applets in my face-to-face classes. I’m not able (yet) to create my own Geogebra applets, but I use that ones that are shared by the other teachers in the Geogebra Materials. I organized few times math activities with lower secondary students & parents (in the evenings). There were games, math and fun – NCTM website inspired me to organize this kind of activities and both, parents & students enjoyed. I heard about this course by reading Maria’s ppt. on the Moodle MOOC - I visited the Moebius Noodles website and so I found info about this course. Q2. I have a 2 years old granddaughter – she’ll be staying with me 2 weeks in July. So, she is the youngest member of my circle. We start to learn some math together and I’m sure that in July we’ll learn a lot. She likes to associate numbers with their representation, she likes to play with blocks/ lego for young children. My children are young at heart – especially the eldest one (he is 30) likes to play ‘mill’ (this is the translation of the name of the game ([it is a Romanian game][1]). At this moment we are in holidays - I can’t reach my students as the holidays just started and most of them are travelling with their parents. Q3. I would like to find creative ways to teach math. Not all my students like math – some of them have difficulties in understanding the abstract math concepts. I would like provoke them with creative math learning activities. Q4. I’ll do my best to reach the aims of the course. I don’t know how many local kids I might find during the summer, but I’m sure that I’m able to reach 2-3 kids. [1]: http://www.boardgames-blog.ro/board-games/moara-tintar-descriere-si-regulament

1) I am the father of 2 (aged 7 and 9) and the husband of one (wife.) I'm in high tech, running my own consulting/strategy firm. I'm passionate about math and math education for my children, and believe that we parents have to play an active role in providing guidance for our children in this regard, particularly as many professional "educators" are math-ophobes and unfortunately pass that fear on to the children they are supposed to educate. I don't play many games per se, though I enjoy crossword puzzles and in my youth I was a (too) serious pool player, bowler, and pinball junkie. I was lucky enough to meet Maria in person and have been eager to participate in her vision. I have a website and a blog, but as they are for my professional life and I like to keep that separate from my personal life, I'll not list them here. 2) My children are funny, wacky kids who know that they can get away with (most) of their mischieviousness if they can find a way to make me laugh. My son (7) is quite skilled at the mechanics of math, and my daughter (9) is more the logician/inference expert. My daughter is very much into music, art, and crafts, and my son eschews music in favor of art and design via an intense interest in Lego. 3) I'm looking for ways in which I can keep the math flame burning as a lifetime interest for both children. I view this course as a way to obtain some skills and methods to do so. 4) I am fully committed (in more ways than one:)

Question 1. I am the mother of 6 wonderful kids and I home school with my husband. When my time is my own I enjoy reading and running (though not at the same time) among other things. My husband is an architect. He enjoys reading, but not running, working with his hands and tormenting our children. We enjoy a variety of puzzles and games; for math I like the challenge of sudoku, logic puzzles and balancing our budget. We heard of the course through an online home school list serve we are on. We do not currently have a website or blog. Question 2. Our oldest is 12 and loves manga, storytelling, and manga. She says math makes her head smoke like you see in the comic strips. Our 10 year old son is passionate about animals and legos. Our 9 year old daughter dabbles in everything and currently is experimenting with sewing and drawing. Our 7 year old daughter enjoys being read to and leading her younger sisters in group imaginative play. Our 4 year old daughter loves to dress up, drawing and writing like the big kids, and being the ever present mommy's helper. Our youngest is 2 and is a mini ball of energy. She climbs, jumps, scales, runs, and wiggles her way through the day copying whatever we say and do and reminding us that life can be full of laughter. Question 3. I am coming in without any expectations, but I am hoping that through this experience I can find new ways to make math more accessible to my children and to help them see that it doesn't have to be "work". Maybe I'll learn something for myself too. Question 4. We are committed and looking forward to working with and adapting these ten problems with our children and each other and to reporting and analyzing the results with all of you.

Q1: I am the mother of three children, ages 7, 5 and soon-to-be 3. I was teaching math at mostly the high school level, and am currently am working on a MA degree (in math). I enjoy playing any puzzles we find and games with the kids such as tangrams, Rummi-kub, cribbage, Set and Uno. On my own, I enjoy running, reading and trying out interesting math questions to potentially use with high-schoolers. I do not have a website or blog at this time. I heard about this course via Facebook. Q2: Our oldest boy will be in 2nd grade and loves reading and his newfound mental computational abilities. He is still learning self-control when it comes to game play, his competitiveness and emotions. My middle child (girl) will be entering kindergarten and loves singing, dancing and pretend –play. She can occupy herself for hours almost unattended in her own creative world. Our youngest (boy) thrives on being active and getting in on any activities with the older two. He’s all about “do it myself” these days. They’re all mostly enjoying lots of library books, biking and being in the water this summer. Q3: I’d like to gain insights into how to weave math exploration into daily life more with the kids. I’m also starting a math circle with some students at my kids' elementary school in the fall, and would like to perhaps gain some ideas. Q4: Yes, absolutely.

Q1: We play a lot of card games and some board games, we like to paint and to make things. A friend sent us the link to moebiousnoodles. Q2: At the moment, one 6 year old who likes energetic games, the outdoors, reading books and fantasy games. Q3: I don't have any expectations apart from having fun with my child and my friends while taking part. Q4: Yes, absolutely.