Mortensen math?

Early Learning Teaching Your Child Math
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For all those lovely fokes out there loving math and wanting to heal the math-o-phobia plus being interested in Mortensen Math, there has been created a lovely group with a great atmosphere, on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/arithmophobianomore/

It is made of us, EL parents and friends of ours, either homeschooling or unschooling or just schooling, who want something appealing, easy and fun to either enjoy math lessons or heal from the past or make math learning a nice experience in general for us as parents and for our children, nephews etc.

This is the current description of the group:
[i]
"Why WE are here? Because…

  • We love math and we want our kids to love it too
  • Math is EASY once you find a way to learn it and teach it with ease, RELAX
  • Math is sooooo much FUN once we change our perception towards it
  • We want to get rid of our fears about math and help our kids get rid of theirs, it’s a healing place, we are starting over in new ways
  • We want a chance to build self-confidence in us and our children, boys and girls
  • We want smart, self-aware, independent thinking and successful kids being able to understand math in the world surrounding us and use it for the benefit of all
  • There’s a lot to this world we don’t know about and math is a key to seeing and understanding and enjoying life in amazing ways
    (PS: the list will adjust according to what everyone agrees)"[/i]
62

I just want to post an update on our use of Mortensen/Base Ten math. It’s been a year and this is where we are now.

  1. I know math better than I have in my life. After countless hours of playing with blocks, math finally makes sense to me. And not only does it make sense, it is beautiful. I no longer have to struggle to make math interesting, it just is.

  2. We started last year and P. (my 5 year old, then 4) was adding/subtracting numbers inside of 10. We were doing some stuff with numbers above 10 if they showed up in games, but mostly up to 10. We were skip counting and working on multiplication facts with Times to Remember. Now, at 5, his favorite math is playing around with polynomials. He can easily do percents, add, subtract, multiply, and divide. He can do those things with negative as well as positive integers. We are getting a grip on fractions and what those are. He can do area and perimeter of shapes. He has had an introduction to trig, geometry, and next week we will be exploring Calculus in the form of an infinite series, which he discovered. We are still skip counting and working on addition and subtraction and getting our facts to instant recall.

  3. We formed a base ten blocks FB group, it now has over 100 people in it.

  4. I also started a website for Mom’s who are just like me. Didn’t understand math well enough to teach it. But they want to learn. You are all invited to join us.

No you don’t have to have the blocks to begin. In the FB group there is a PDF for paper blocks in the files section. A year ago I said that I didn’t think there was a way for most of us (normal moms like me) to teach math without base ten blocks. Of course, you can teach it, but not in an accelerated or EL manner. Base ten blocks are a game changer in my opinion. I do hope if you are looking for a math program you at least cut up some paper blocks and give it a try.

website: www.arithmophobianomore.com
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/nomathfears
FB group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/arithmophobianomore/

Here is the last post I did about teaching fractions to the pre-school crowd.

http://www.arithmophobianomore.com/home/learning-to-count-not-as-easy-as-you-think

63

Hi there!

Sonya has recently posted her review on the curriculum “Algebra for Breakfast”, created by Bob Hazen. This is one of Jerry Mortensen’s master trainers, if I understood well. You can read her review here: http://www.arithmophobianomore.com/index.php/2015/10/15/algebra-for-breakfast-review/

And for those interested in Mortensen Math blocks, Sonya has my combo kit combo which is for sale. I am not coming too soon in USA and I am using our EZ math set in Romania that is why I am selling those. They are brand new, not used. $125 if anyone is interested, just PM sonya_post

64

I just recently tried to my daughter the placemats created by Sonya and Andrea (super thanks!) :smiley: <3 Check this post https://transactions.sendowl.com/stores/4674/19213
My daughter is so attractive with the placemats (it comes with activity cards for parents). Even though we have been doing some of the activities in cards, it is helpful to me since I only have few minutes of time to do math with my daughter in the morning before I go to work or when I come home after work. I wouldn’t need to think an activity since I can just choose from the activity cards. The placemats also provided a new way of presenting the activities to my daughter and she loves it! And what I love is…. the bundle includes 10 different languages, perfect for us because my DD also learning Spanish and Chinese :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

65

Hey lovely math people! Haven’t been here for quite a while! Many things have changed and I have great news!

Sonya has found a math gem. At least this is how I and other parents see it, that takes the usage of math blocks to another level, whether you’re familiar or not with Mortensen math. It’s the Gattegno method which uses the Cuisenaire blocks, and there’s a reason for that. Sonya has posted a lot on her blog about the method, resources and easy to follow lessons http://www.arithmophobianomore.com/category/how-to-teach/gattegno-textbook-1/

The really big and exciting news is that she managed to get in contact with a school where pioneer math teachers who have been taught by Caleb Gattegno are going to teach, for the first time, both live in NY and online worldwide to homeschoolers and teachers and whoever else is interested in the method.

Details of the 1st Gattegno Cuisenaire Conference for Homeschooling Families can be found here http://www.arithmophobianomore.com/gattegno-conference/

We already have some crazy math mommas going to NY in August to meet the amazing teachers and learn from them after reading, learning and applying on their own at home with their children and other students.

Happy mathing!

Andrea

66

I have some update on the conference, for those interested:
If you want to attend you need to register by tomorrow at 10:30 central time. If you miss that deadline, you can still attend but you will not have streaming access until the afternoon session of the first day. Sign-up is on the right hand side of the page at the top:
http://www.arithmophobianomore.com/gattegno-conference/

I will attend the streaming from Romania. And I know BK parents from Gambia, parts of US and UK so far have signed-up to attend :slight_smile:

Happy Mathing!

Andrea

67

As we have people who are afraid to miss parts of or even the whole conference and asked for recording options, if you register we will be doing a FB live stream in addition to theirs.

You want theirs and attend as much as you can, to interact and get feedback. But if you miss, especially if you have a very busy schedule or live in Australia or other parts of the world where the time difference is big, the video will be held in a secret FB group where you will have access forever.

We keep people updated both on the group https://www.facebook.com/groups/arithmophobianomore/ and especially after signing-up to the conference. It’s just 50 USD for 30 hours of valuable math.