Number Sense Blog

Grab your hoverboards—the future is HERE: October 21, 2015 is Back to the Future Day! For background purposes, in Back to the Future II, Marty McFly travels forward in time from 1985, landing in the future on October 21, 2015. Today, we’re cele...

In the spirit of National Dictionary Day (October 16), we'd like to share one of our favorite made-up words that we use quite often at Mathnasium. It's not in any dictionary—but we definitely think it should be! mathing - The activity of active...

It’s a big day for chemistry (and math!) enthusiasts—October 23 is National Mole Day! Before images of burrowing, subterranean rodents with limited vision come to mind, allow us to offer a brief explanation of this very big number. In chemistry...

Fact: having the right attitude and perspective in place is absolutely critical to achieving academic goals. At Mathnasium, we’ve seen kids’ appreciation for math unfold time and again as we work with them. With that in mind, Whet Moser’s piece in...

Feline aficionados rejoice—October 29 is National Cat Day! It’s an absolutely purrfect day for word problems, so put on your thinking caps and kitty ears right meow and celebrate with us! Debora has 8 cats. Half of her cats have 6 whiskers each...

Happy Halloween! The heebie-jeebies will be out in full force throughout the weekend, and today we’re exploring the mythology behind the one number that sends chills up and down our spines! In western superstition, the number 13 is perhaps the mos...

There’s never a dull moment at Mathnasium HQ—especially when Halloween rolls around! We have a lot of fun making math make sense to kids, and last Friday, we celebrated the spookiest holiday of all with costumes and creativity! Top row and ...

This holiday season, gather with your family for a rousing game of Holiday Bingo! Download and print out our Holiday Bingo Card, and complete your choice of the activities listed. Get five in a row and bring into Mathnasium in December for a fun a...

Grades 1 - 6: Charlie has 6 dimes and 3 nickels. Darlene has 2 quarters and 3 dimes. Who has more money and by how much? Grades 6 and up: A water jug is half full. After 6 cups of water are added, the jug is 70% full. How much water can the ent...

Conversion and Units of Measure: Yards, Meters, Miles, and Furlongs! 3,000 yards. 2,800 meters. 1.5 miles. 9 furlongs. On first glance, one may take the easy way out and assume that they’re all equal in length. Guess what… they’re not! We’ll...

Happy Holidays… and hello 2016! Now that your family has a break from school pressures and busy schedules, it’s an ideal time to sit with your child and start planning for the new year. Here are some tips to help you navigate the holidays and star...

(Image: Möbius Strip II (Red Ants), by M.C. Escher, 1964, via Flickr) November 17 marks the birthday of German mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius (November 17, 1790 – September 26, 1868), which means it’s the perfect time to wax poetic about...

Final scores are in for the Fifth Annual Mathnasium TriMathlon—Mathnasium’s annual elementary school (grades 2 to 5) math event held over the course of one weekend at Mathnasium Learning Centres across the US and Canada! We think we can all agree ...

Give our report card-themed word problem a try! A grade point average is calculated using points. An A is worth 4 points, a B is worth 3 points, a C is worth 2 points, a D is worth 1 point, and an F is worth 0 points. If your grades for your cl...

With fall in full swing and the holidays on the horizon, it isn’t surprising that we’ve been thinking a lot about pie lately, and by extension—you guessed it—pie charts! When conducting a survey, presenting your data (your results, the information...

Today’s word problem is our little homage to a school cafeteria favorite—the juice carton! Give it a try—we’ll update this article with the answer tomorrow. A cafeteria has three different kinds of juice cartons. 1/6 of the juice cartons contai...

Just in time for the holidays, here’s some news that kicked long-buried childhood dreams into gear and sent our space-and-math-loving hearts aflutter: starting December 17, 2015, NASA’s accepting job applications for astronauts! This is the fir...

(Image via Bunnicula on Flickr) In the spirit of World Kindness Day, today's word problem celebrates how one positive act has the power to inspire many more. Give it a try; we'll update this article on Monday with the answer! You write two p...

We don't know about you, but there's something about wagging tails and soulful puppy eyes that makes our hearts grow soft... hence today's doggie-themed word problem featuring some very hungry dogs! Give it a try—we'll update this article with t...

As your child settles in for a productive evening of homework and studying, does he or she have a study space that promotes mental efficiency and focus? Here are some suggestions for structuring a home study area that nips distraction-related frus...