The Ultimate YuGiOh Deck at a “Bargain” Price …

At breakfast school, I asked Martin — the YuGiOh maniac — the following hypothetical question. As you’ve guessed, I’m a sadistic mom, and I’m in some danger of becoming a born-again math lover.
I asked, “Suppose someone offered to sell you the ULTIMATE YuGiOh! Deck — a copy of every known card INCLUDING THE ULTRA RARE [...]

Repost from 2007 — Math and My “Right Brained Learner”

One of my math goals for Martin (age eight) is to work on multi-digit addition and subtraction, with or without regrouping. This has been a challenge. It would be relatively simple, I suppose, if I were going to sit down and drill him on the methods Marie and I were taught in public school. Start [...]

Repost: More Probability

Fall, 2008
We played Pig again.

In turn, each player is handed four dice. He can choose to roll 1, 2, 3 or all 4 dice. He can roll as many times as he likes.
Each time he rolls, he computes the sum of all the dice he rolled. That is his score.
If he rolls one “1″ at [...]

Repost: Probability

Fall, 2008
We played “Pig,” a simple probability game that has become a regular for us. This game provides practice with addition up to sums of 24 along with intuitive experience with probability.

In turn, each player is handed four dice. He can choose to roll 1, 2, 3 or all 4 dice. He can roll as [...]

Repost: Fair Game

Fall, 2008
We continued our probability and statistics gig Tuesday by playing some simple games. In each case, the kids were asked, is this game fair? What do you predict will happen?

(very easy) Flip a coin. If it lands on heads I get a point; if it lands on tails, you get a point. (Fair, each [...]

Repost: 31 Flavors

Fall, 2008
I am one of the majority of people in the U.S. who doesn’t “get” math. Despite my best efforts to the contrary, I did learn some math in school, but it was all poorly understood rote procedures. I certainly never understood what was interesting about this subject. I eventually got good enough at Algebra [...]