Archive for the 'Teaching Math @Home' Category

To Whom Does the Pencil Belong: How NOT to Teach Math at Home
Thursday, September 11th, 2008

When I was young, math was a scary thing. It was scary for two reasons: one, I simply didn’t get it and two, the scary of the scary, was that Mom and Dad didn’t get that I didn’t get math. I remember dreading the pending ‘homework’ help after dinner when the last grain of dropped [...]

From Chess to Math: Why Homework Help Alone is Ineffective in the Long Run
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

While attending a chess tournament this past weekend with our two kids, I observed that our 6-year old plays his game with much less thought than his 10-year-old sister. For one, he chases his opponents’ pieces with his own Queen as if he is chasing his buddies on the playground – run them down till [...]

“Do you see what I see?”
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

“Why would I want to do that?” asked Johnny to his mother, Teresa. The three of us, mother, so and I were sitting on my round table. Johnny is a 7th grader and Teresa holds an advanced degree in Chemistry. Johnny’s grades have improved steadily, and phase II of his program is now in full [...]