Author: Hun Hong
Math with Dad: Decimal Decomposition
Activities Warm-up: Review grouping by tens. Using grouping by tens, identify the quantity, say, forty-three with 4 tens and 3 ones. Write the quantity as 43. Do the same with forty-two and forty-one, writing them as 4 tens 2 ones and 4 tens 1 one, and also as 42 and 41, respectively. Continuing in this manner,…
Math with Dad: Subtraction
Try some “take away” (subtraction) problems using physical objects (like the base-ten blocks or just fingers). Redo the previous activity while making connections with algebraic expressions. For example, “ten take away four equals five” can be written as $10-4=5$. Once the child is comfortable with the above activities (this may take some time and practice),…
Math with Dad: Decimals from 1 to 99
Readiness of the child: Child can count in tens Materials Base 10 blocks (units, tens, hundreds) Pen (pencil) Paper Activities (Let the child do as much as possible) Using a 10-block, let the child quickly collect ten 1-blocks (just grab units and lay them side to the 10-block so that you would have a “copy”…
Frustration is Necessary for Brain Growth
The road to superaging is difficult, though, because these brain regions have another intriguing property: When they increase in activity, you tend to feel pretty bad – tired, stymied, frustrated. Think about the last time you grappled with a math problem or pushed yourself to your physical limits. […] This means that pleasant puzzles like…
Mathematics is More than Computation
So what, then, remains in mathematics that people need to master? The answer is, the set of skills required to make effective use of those powerful new (procedural) mathematical tools we can access from our smartphone. Whereas it used to be the case that humans had to master the computational skills required to carry out…