Get the most out of Don's books

1. What don't you understand? Your child deserves to do this important mathematics. Your child deserves to be challenged. Your child can think, they can make up problems, they can find ways to do something, if they understand the meaning.

2. What are you afraid of? Fractions are simple if you know how many of the pieces make a whole cookie. Equations are simple if you just guess a number, put it in for x, and see if it makes the sentence true.

3. The worksheet book has questions leading to the different mathematical ideas. Try these with your child. Try these yourself. Don't feel you have to know everything in order for your child to do it. Learn together with your child. Have FUN!

4. Make a bunch of copies of  the 1/2" graph paper in the appendix. Use this in chapter 1 for the 8x8 square. And in chapter 6 for the graphing.

5. Is it right for your child? A 6 year old and a 13 year old can do lots of what's in Don's books. Give them a head start. Every child is different.

6. See Don's page which shows the mathematics and arithmetic your child will work on.

7. See sample problems and answers from Don's worksheet book.

8. Don's email to Tom, a middle school teacher in Alaska, on how to get started using Don's materials:

Hi Tom,

Sorry to be so long in answering.

Debbie, a teacher in Keokuk IA, back about 6 years ago, worked with 6-8th graders in my worksheet book. She did something I wouldn't do, but it worked for her. Every child worked on chapter 1 for about 4 months. They all made the diagrams (see the answer page to chapter 1 sample problems), in color, for 1/2 + 1/4 + ..., found the partial sums, graphed the partial sums, talked about what was happening. Then they went to 1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 + ... and did the same thing. They generalized 1/n + (1/n)^2 + (1/n)^3 + ... then did 2/5 + (2/5)^2 + ..., generalizing to A/B + (A/B)^2 + (A/B)^3 + ... ->  A/(B-A). That was impressive.  Two of her students found errors in chapter 4 when working on the snowflake and Serpinski curves. She raised money for me to spend a day at her school and work with her students.

Now, Tom, I work with individual students in groups of about 5 (the ideal situation- The Math Program, which we have been doing for 27 years!). I wouldn't do it that way. I would get one or two youngsters working on chapter 1, some on chapter 6 (functions and graphs), some on chapter 8 (solving equations). You might want to break down chapters, like

Chapter 1
1. add 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ... in color
2. find partial sums for at least 6 terms
3. graph the partial sums
4. determine where the sum is going (the limit)
5. does it make sense so far? what's happening as one goes along in each step above? What patterns do you see? Can you predict the next 3 terms?

Then do these 5 steps for 1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 +...
Then do these 5 steps for 1/4 + 1/16 + 1/64 +... and so on.

See my problem is Tom, I can't do the same thing twice. I like variation and chaos! I want kids to do things in ways I haven't seen. Then I enjoy my teaching, when I learn new things. See my student's works in "New Discoveries". Of course, most of the work I have done and written about is from the kids.

Lastly, start some kids going and YOU and THEY will enjoy it. You can talk to the kids about what they are doing, questions they have. I don't use my worksheet book except for one student who comes just for that. She comes once a week for 45 minutes and loves it.

It took me a long time to be able to do this off the top of my head. I spent many, many hours writing down what are the important ideas in mathematics. I taught 6 years in junior high schools. I knew what I was doing was good but the organization of the school and I didn't 'click'. I then had a great teacher in Robert B. Davis, with whom I worked with for about 15 years. Then I worked on computer-based education for 4 years. Then my partner and I started The Math Program. This organization for teaching enabled us to work with students of all ages and abilities, in small groups. Parents pay us, so if the kids don't do better in school, we are not doing our job, and will not get paid! We've been doing this for 27 years, so we are doing most things right.

I hope this has been helpful, Tom. Please let me know what you do and what the kids do. If they do something interesting, perhaps I will put it on my New Discoveries page! Good luck. Fear not, the kids will help. And HAVE FUN!

Cordially, Don