Our own experience with introducing advanced math to little kids tells us that it can be difficult. Surprisingly, the difficulty is not in getting the kids to understand the concepts. Instead, it’s the difficulty in getting the non-mathematician parents to believe that math can be fun and to see it all around us.
After years and years of traditional math learning, many parents find it hard to think of math as something other than numbers. Sure, math does deal with numbers. But limiting mathematics to numbers is like limiting parenting to changing diapers.
Psst, want to know a secret? Turns out, there is no generally accepted definition of math. Yep, that’s right! Nobody knows exactly what math is, not even math teachers! Mathematics studies lots of properties and quantity is just one of them. Others include structure, space, change and more. If we only had math goggles that we could put on and start noticing math all around us!
And that’s exactly what we are going to do in the Math Goggles Challenges. Over the next several months, we will post weekly challenges for you. We hope you accept them and come back to tell us how it went. Or share pictures of your found math. Or post about your experience on your own blog and link to us. Or brag about your finds on our Facebook page. If you are not sure whether what you found is math, take a picture and share with us, publicly (see above) or privately via e-mail at email@example.com
Read? Set? Let’s do it! Activate your Math Goggles!
10. Bagel Math
11. Just Listen