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Every guide in the Math Prizes resource hub, newest first. Page 6 of 16.
Fact Fluency by Grade: What's Reasonable to Expect in Grades 1 Through 5
A grade-by-grade look at what fact fluency really means, what to expect from first through fifth, and why speed drills aren't the answer.
Grades Aren't the Goal: What To Focus On Instead for Lasting Math Confidence
A perfect report card can hide a kid who is one hard year away from falling apart. Here is what to watch instead, and why it matters more.
Place Value Isn't Clicking: The Foundation Behind So Many Struggles
When later math keeps falling apart, the real problem is often place value. Here's how to spot the gap and rebuild it so the rest of math stops breaking.
Subscriptions That Quietly Renew: Auditing the Cost of a Math App
That $9.99 math app your kid used twice is still charging you. Here's how to find every quiet renewal and decide which subscriptions are actually earning their keep.
Garden Math: Measuring, Spacing, and Counting the Harvest
A seed packet is a word problem in disguise. Here's how planting a small garden bed quietly teaches measuring, spacing, and counting your kid will remember.
Building a Home Math Corner With Stuff You Already Own
You already own everything you need for a math corner. Here's how I'd set one up with buttons, coins, and a shoebox, and what each thing is actually for.
What Kindergarten Math Homework Should (and Shouldn't) Look Like
A five year old with a math packet and a meltdown is a common sight, and usually a sign something's off. Here's what kindergarten math should really look like.
Practice Over Winter and Spring Break Without Ruining the Vacation
A week off doesn't wreck math skills, but three weeks of nothing can. Here's how to keep the rust off over break without turning vacation into school.
When Your Kid Says 'The Teacher Does It Differently'
You show your kid the way you learned subtraction, and they tell you the teacher does it differently. Here's how to help without starting a small war.
When Your Kid Gives Up the Second Math Gets Hard
The pencil goes down, the eyes go glassy, and you hear 'I can't do this.' Here's what that moment actually means and how to work through it without a fight.
Cooperative Math Games Where the Family Wins Together
The fastest kid always wins competitive math games. These cooperative versions put everyone on the same team, so practice feels like fun instead of a race.
Ads Inside Kids Apps: What's Legal, What's Sketchy, and How to Kill Them
How ads in kids apps really work under the hood, which ones cross a line, and the concrete steps that actually get rid of them.
How to Move a Kid From Watching to Doing on the Same Device
Same tablet, same twenty minutes, completely different effect on your kid's brain. Here's how to shift from watching to doing without a fight.
Fractions of a Set: Half of a Group Is Different From Half of a Cookie
Kids who nail half of a pizza often freeze at half of a bag of grapes. Here's why the jump is hard and how to make it click at the kitchen table.
Building Addition Fluency Without a Single Worksheet
My most fluent students weren't the ones who did the most worksheets. They were the ones who played the right games often enough to stop counting on fingers.
How To Talk About Your Own Math Struggles in a Way That Helps
'I was never a math person either' feels like comfort. To a struggling kid it can sound like permission to quit. There's a better way to say it.
The 10-Minute-a-Day Habit That Turns Around a Struggling Math Kid
The kid who was behind in October caught up by spring, and it wasn't a tutor or a weekend cram. It was ten quiet minutes a day.
Buyer's Guide: What the Best Math Fact Practice Tool Looks Like
I've built software for fifteen years and a math app for my own kids. Here's what separates a math fact tool worth paying for from a slot machine.
Spring Break Math That Fits Around Actual Rest
Spring break should be a break. Here are low-effort spring break math activities that keep skills warm in a few minutes a day without stealing the rest.
Should Your Kindergartner Be Using a Math App at All?
Math apps for kindergarten can help or quietly get in the way. Here is when a screen makes sense at age five, and when a bin of buttons wins.
Grade-Level Math Milestones: A Year-by-Year Cheat Sheet for Parents
A plain year-by-year map of what math kids actually pick up from kindergarten through fifth grade, so you can tell a normal wobble from a real gap.
How to Restart Math Practice After You Have Fallen Off
The routine died sometime around the holidays and nobody noticed. Here is how to restart a math practice routine without guilt or a two-hour catch-up session.
Homework Time Is Not the Time to Teach New Math
Homework is for practicing what a kid already knows, not learning it cold. Here's why teaching new math at the kitchen table backfires, and what works better.
How to Turn a Grocery Trip Into a Math Motivation Win
The cereal aisle is a better math classroom than most worksheets. Here's how to turn a normal grocery run into practice your kid actually cares about.