Maria's Math News, June 2022

Hello!

Welcome to the collection of tips & news for June. 😀

Math Mammoth news
End-of-year award
Multiplication flash cards (grades 2-4)
Interview of me
Minimalist Math Curriculum (grades 1-4)
Relax!

1. Math Mammoth news

Math Mammoth Exponents and Scientific Notation book cover

A new book in the Blue series! Math Mammoth Exponents and Scientific Notation covers negative & zero exponents, exponent laws (product of powers, quotient of powers, power of power, etc.), significant digits, writing numbers in scientific notation, and calculations with such numbers.

It is meant primarily for eighth grade, and is available both as a print book and as a download. The lessons from this book will also be a part of the upcoming 8th grade curriculum.

Download free sample pages:

Contents
Laws of Exponents, Part 1
Scientific Notation: Small Numbers
Scientific Notation in Calculations

If you've purchased a Blue Series bundle previously, you can get this new book (and also Geometry 4) at 33% discount. Reply to this email or use the contact form to get a special coupon code for that purpose. Include your order info (name/email/order ID).

Changes to the Blue Series bundles

With the addition of Exponents and Scientific Notation book, I have now broken the Blue series (the series of TOPICAL books) into THREE different discounted bundles:

Each bundle gives you about a 33% discount over purchasing the books individually.

The bundle for all of the Blue series is also available for $148.

Photos of children using MM

See some recent images from Math Mammoth users at this Facebook post 😀:

Children using Math Mammoth

2. End-of-year award

At this time of year, you might enjoy giving your child an end-of-year award or certificate for completing a grade level in Math Mammoth. 😀

Math Mammoth certificate of completion 1

Math Mammoth certificate of completion 2

3. Multiplication flash cards

I don't often recommend other people's products but if you're into multiplication flash cards, this set from Math for Love is wonderful. Why? Because the cards reinforce the CONCEPT of multiplication while practicing fact fluency. Thus, they work much better than "brute-force" memorizing of facts.

I have tried to incorporate a similar idea in the structured drills I advocate: the drills are based on the structure and concept of multiplication, at first, and random drills are only used later on.

See my videos on the structured drills here.

4. Interview

I was interviewed by Arial Buza from Homeschool Together podcast. We had a wonderful talk, and mostly about generic math topics which you will surely find interesting!

We were very lucky to have Maria Miller from Math Mammoth on the show today. We talked all about Math Mammoth, the nuances of teaching math, and how to help struggling math students to ensure positive math outcomes. It was a wide-ranging discussion (e.g. struggling students, giving feedback, origins of Math Mammoth, benefits of teaching conceptual understanding) that you don't want to miss.

5. Minimalist Math Curriculum

I just found something called Minimalist Math Curriculum.

It's a free curriculum, and consists of ONLY 10 math problems per WEEK, for a total of 360 math problems for the full year.

$math worksheets$ $math worksheets$

I doubt this is enough practice for most children, or for many of the topics. BUT! It's an interesting idea and it could work for some topics, and/or for some children.

You could use these worksheets for summer math, and for a review at any time.

6. Relax!

No jokes this time... but if you're looking for summer math — and if you're not, relaxing is a great option — check out my article on the topic: Summer Math Resources

Thanks for reading! 🙂

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Till next time,
Maria Miller