Number Sense Blog

The longest prime number has been discovered and it's 17,425,170 digits long, surpassing the prior number discovered in 2008 which was a measly 12,978,189 digits long. Discovered by University of Central Missouri mathematician Curtis Cooper, the n...

Rule of Thumb: Math may seem strict, but we have a sense of humor.  Check out our Pinterest for a little laugh!

Cari Waggoner at our Mathnasium in Granger, MN made the most of the icy conditions.

The bell rings and everyone takes their seats. The teacher passes out the test and, with sharpened pencils, everyone prepares to turn the page and begin. The student next to you flips open the first page and seems to begin answering questions with...

We're asking our fans to find 'x' in the equation ME + x = Love.  What completes your equation, is it your friends, pet, teacher? Tell us by uploading a photo or instagram to our Facebook contest application. The entry with the most votes will rec...

Want to make change? This cartoon illustrates how making change for a dollar can be an exercise in computation. Try it with your kids, but aim for 5 different ways to make change, not 293!

The Teach and Move On Method lets educators assist students with individual problems, then move to another student, and check back in later.  Mathnasium's Larry Martinek goes into detail on the method, offering tips and suggestions for helping you...

Mathnasium's open environment encourages learning with a clear and accessible layout! Teachers can easily navigate to assist several students at time, allowing privacy and space.

"Once you learn math and continually use it, you forget how you learned it to start with." -Larry Martinek What do your kids want to be when they grow up? A ballerina? Or an astronaut? Or "just like Mike"? Growing up, kids idolize their favorite s...

Here are a few statistics for you when it comes to children and technology.- 20% of children ages 3 to 8 own their own iPod Touch- 24% of children ages 3 to 8 own an iPad- 8% of children ages 3 to 8 own their own iPhone- 80% of teenagers own an iP...

The Teach and Move On Method lets educators help multiple students by moving from student to student and working on individual problems.  This allows students to work out the problem individually with assistance from the instructor.  This also kee...

In December 2004, the Wall Street Journal reported that American kids are "Economic Time-bombs" because they are not learning enough math to be the good problem solvers the nation demands. With this in mind, how are your children performing in mat...

Imagine this scenario.One day a student arrives at the college or university of his choice for the first time as a freshman. He is so excited to start his new adventure as a college student, inevitably facing new challenges and meeting new people....

I want to introduce the importance of "numerical fluency" and learning basic "number facts." Picture this scenario.A teacher asks a classroom, "If you spend 70 cents, 80 cents, and 90 cents, how much did you spend altogether?" The teacher is think...

In the last blog posting I discussed the importance of developing numerical fluency (the ability to effortlessly recall and use basic number facts). Unfortunately, many students in 2nd through 5th grades, and at times even higher, have a limited g...

The first few times a child looks at addition and subtraction problems can be a confusing experience. It is very important for children to be able to effortlessly recall reliable methods to answer number facts.One excellent method is Filling in th...

 When you add two apples with three apples you get five apples. When you add two bananas with three bananas you get five bananas.When you add two apples and three bananas do you get five banapples?You don't get five banapples just as if you add pe...

 When my son Nick was seven years old, he told me, "Hey Dad, if the world was the size of a basketball, our house would be as big as a flea's flea!"I was stunned at this incredible display of Proportional Thinking.  While I thought to myself that ...

Add 17 + 18 + 19. Do it quick! If you reached for a scratch sheet to get to the solution of 54, you didn't do it wrong, but here's a different way to think about this question:First, round each number to the nearest 10 (20 in this case), and add t...

I have often heard students coming out of a class saying, "That stuff doesn't make sense!" This is because many students have not developed a good general sense of the mathematical subject matter that is presented at school. Students are not provi...