The Mathematics of Christmas

I recently came across this fascinating video called ‘The Mathematics of Christmas’ which talked about number and figures related to Christmas in the US. Here you go:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/mathematics-christmas-12398826

• 20% of the Americans generally don’t finish their shopping until Christmas Eve.
• 38,000 miles of ribbon are used to wrap up all those Christmas presents – which is enough to tie five giant bows around the moon.
• There are 1 million square acres of Christmas trees growing in America’s forests – more acres than the entire state of Rhode Island.
• Anthem (Arizona) is home to the nation’s largest Christmas tree, standing at a 110 feet – this is equal to 18 Santas tall and is decorated with more than 50,000 lights.
• In each year, about 11,000 letters addressed to the Big Man in Red arrive at the post office in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana.
• In order to visit all those good little boys and girls on Christmas Eve, Santa and his eight reindeer need to travel at a speed of 650 miles per second.

Math-Anxiety & Parents

I have a confession to make. As a kid, I detested math, in all kinds, shapes and forms. And, though I hate to admit this (and have never admitted it in the presence of my kids), I used to run away from math every opportunity I got; which made me a big nuisance for my parents and teachers alike. Could never even imagine that one fine day I would be chiding my kids for the same!

But then, would I qualify to be a ‘math anxious’ parent? A study carried out by the University of Chicago recently came up with the conclusion that ‘children of math-anxious parents learned less math over the school year and were more likely to be math-anxious themselves’ (which my kids definitely are).

Susan Levine, who headed the study, had this to say: “Math-anxious parents may be less effective in explaining math concepts to children, and may not respond well when children make a mistake or solve a problem in a novel way.”

Now that I come to think of it, I do tend to consider math-time at home as a chore and as a result am always waiting for it to get over so that I can move on to the so-called ‘bigger’ and ‘better’ subjects which I love teaching my kids; science or language, for instance. Maybe I should just try and get rid of whatever (subconscious) anxiety I have towards math and turn over a new leaf in a way. Who knows, maybe my kids will start loving math too? High hopes, but definitely worth a try.

3 Fun Math Apps – For Tiny Tots to Tweens

“The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.”

Coming from Paul Richard Halmos, the renowned mathematician who is credited with significant advances in several fields of mathematics such as probability theory, statistics and mathematical logic, these words hold so much power. But then when it comes to kids, especially the kindergarten and the just-passed kindergarten ones, getting them to sit down and do mathematics is next to impossible. Hence, parents find themselves turning to other ‘more interesting’ means like online math games, story-telling (for instance, four frogs jumped into a pond, then one more, how many are there in all?), math story books (a popular one is Each Orange Had 8 Slices: A Counting Book by Paul Giganti, Jr. and Donald Crews), to name a few.

Along the same lines, here are three fun math apps for different age groups – from toddlers to middle schoolers – which are an exciting way to help your kids get rid of their math woes.

TallyTots (For 2-4 year olds)
The first thing that strikes you about the interface of this app is that it is extremely colorful – and hence, toddlers as well as preschoolers are going to love it. It is a complete package with twenty different mini-games within it, which begins as twenty cards with numbers spread across a cheerful blue sky background. Among the games is a mathematical puzzle which needs to be solved, a garden with flowers which need to be watered, and even chipmunks that need to be fed with a specific number of acorns. To top it all, the one reason which made me love this app most of all has to be the melodious and very simple to learn sing-along counting song, which kids will pick up in no time whatsoever.

The Counting Kingdom (For 6-10 year olds)
This one is all about magic, monsters and (of course!) math. You have a kingdom of your own and monsters are invading it. Even though the monsters are quite cute, you need to banish them from your kingdom, otherwise there will be huge destruction. But how? Through magic spells of course! As the said monsters gradually start appearing in the form of a grid in front of your fortress, the onus is on you to add their numbers together in such a way so as to whip up three different spells (read: sums) to scare the attackers away. Remember the Plants versus Zombies game, in which one had to attack and destroy zombies with dangerous looking plants? The only difference in The Counting Kingdom is that you need to use math equations in place of plants to attack the approaching monsters. This tower defense strategy game will go a long way in brushing up your little one’s addition skills, as he goes past addition problems with increasing complexity at each of the 30 levels presented in the game.

Math Snacks (For 10-12 year olds)
This app is meant especially for those tweens who don’t particularly adore math. It is something akin to a one-stop shop for parents and teachers of the said age group, replete with teacher and student learning material, games and interactive videos. Very unlike the traditional math that is taught in classrooms, Math Snacks caters primarily to the mathematical learning needs of students of grades 6-8 and presents the subject through a variety of different animations and short games. The fact that this app was created by the New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab is reason enough to introduce your kids to it; a very well-designed interactive math app.

With fascinating apps like these on the rise, who knows, there might soon be a day when we won’t know what ‘math phobia’ actually means!

Math to Soothe the Foodie's Heart

The inevitable side effect of being a foodie is that it slips into every part of your life. Especially when you are a Math lover and a food lover, you will definitely notice how food allegories will slip into your teaching techniques. Remember all the problems that start with that strange person called Frank who had 50 billion apples and had to give away 2/59ths of it? Remember all my lectures about how you can teach addition and subtraction using Cheez-Its? It comes with the territory.

A quick google shows that I’m not the first one to have such brilliant crossover ideas (unfortunately!) but some of them put my ideas to shame. Look at these beauties.

Venn Diagram Pizza – Bacon and mushroom on the Left, Red Pepper on the right, flavor explosion bang in the middle!

Menger Sponge Cake – Cubes cut from cubes cut from cubes

Candy Corn Sierpinski Triangle – A triangle within a triangle within a triangle?

Pythagorean Crackers – Triangles are my favorite shape

And my personal favorite, Dodecahedron Apples – A polygon with 12 flat faces

Which ones do you like? 

Story Books that Teach Math

Is your kid a huge fan of stories but not of Math? There are so many books out there – colorful and vibrant – that will not only capture your child’s imagination but also encourage them to learn Math. Here is a list of books for 4^th and 5^th graders that I guarantee your kids will love. 

Click on image to enlarge

Blast from the Past: Lessons in History for Kids

If you thought learning history was all about memorizing facts, think again. My kids surprised me recently when they asked me about the Renaissance. This caught me by surprise because they are still a long way away from Renaissance. On probing, I found out that they came across this while playing one of the penguin games that featured paintings from the Renaissance period.

This made me realize that anything, even history, can be turned into an exciting learning opportunity. It is not just a story about people, places and events from the past. It tells us how the past has shaped the present. All that we have today is a result of what happened.

Take for example, the subject history when taught in classrooms with dates to be memorized was boring. This is the past and we have learnt from it, understood why it didn’t work, and have come up with new ways to make the subject exciting.

So what are the ways in which history can be made fun for kids?

“Point Park, Lookout Mountain TN” by framechaser23 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Games

Apart from the penguin games I talked about earlier that sparked an interest in Renaissance in my kids, there are many other apps that make history interesting. For historical figures and the American Revolution there is Ansel and Clair: Paul Revere's Ride, for battles and wars there are Marie Antoinette & The Independence War and Empire Total War, and for politics you can consider The Political Machine 2012.

Movies

If your kids love watching movies, there are plenty that you could show them like Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Gettysburg, The Great Escape, The King's Speech, Lawrence of Arabia and Saving Private Ryan, John Adams (mini series), JFK, Forrest Gump and Gangs of New York. I would recommend you watch the movies before the kids do or sit with them during them, as they may not all be suitable for younger children. Not all movies portray history accurately, and that is something you should keep in mind too.

Museums

“National Museum of Natural History” by angela n. is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Take it from reel to real, and visit the National Museum of American History or American Museum of Natural History! Field trips to nearby historical towns and museums are great ways to engage kids in learning history. Your own neighborhood may have historical buildings that you could visit. By setting up the Field Trip app on your smartphone, you can receive alerts when you are in the vicinity of interesting places that are categorized under Historic Places & Events.

Books

If we must bring books into this, why not get kids to read biographies and autobiographies? Even better, give them a choice of historical figures, if possible from the era you are teaching them about, and ask them to choose the person about whom they would like to read. It is more likely they will take an interest in reading, if they play a part in choosing what they want to read.

But wait, it need not stop at reading. Why not pit kids against each other with a game of 20 questions? With each one assuming the character of a person they have read about and the other trying to guess the name of the historical figure.

Act!

Kids can take it to the next level and act the characters out. They can also put together a few easy costumes. It is a whole lotta fun! Kids can enact a scene from the life of Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, Amelia Earhart, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. The latter got us a ringside view of the moonwalk! You can also find out if there are any history buffs who gather together for battle reenactments and watch them.

These are just a few ways to put the spark back in history and they sure beat the textbook route, don’t they?

Traditional Math Games - Connect 4

I was playing Connect 4 the other day with my niece. Our age didn't matter – we both had equal parts of fun and equal parts of brain busting. It is such a simple game, it’s sometimes mind blowing to know just how much critical thinking you can teach or learn from a few pieces of colored coin. It is also a great way to teach counting and math to preschool math learners.

Image Source - http://uncannyflats.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/connect-4.jpg

If you haven’t played the game, the premise of Connect 4 is seemingly simple, with players taking it in turns to drop colored coin like pieces into a vertical grid of 7 columns and 6 rows. The winner is the first player to 'Connect 4' pieces either vertically, diagonally or horizontally. This game is a great leveler for adults to play with children, because the simplicity of the play masks the fact that there are actually 4,531,985,219,092 positions and the fact that the game is one in which very real strategies can be developed. There are many different versions of Connect 4 under guises such as Pop out, Pop 10 and 5 in a row, but the original remains the simplest and the best.12:15

I would recommend you buy a game for the classroom or home for those moments when you need a break but don’t mind having a bit of intellectual activity mixed in.