Month: January 2015

Shapes in Math in Palo Alto

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Learning Shapes in Palo Alto

When a Line Bends…A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene will introduce many different shapes to your Palo Alto children. The story teaches children in Palo Alto what characteristics define each shape using a fun rhyming pattern that will keep your child interested in learning. This knowledge will be useful to children in the Palo Alto schools and will help in their early education. The incredible images and graphics will grab your child’s attention and help them remember what each shape looks like. When a Line Bends…A Shape Begins provides practical examples of items that are each shape and that children can relate to. The shapes introduced in this book are lines, circles, squares, triangles, diamonds, ovals, stars, hearts, crescents, and octagons. This book is great to reread time and time again until your child can recall and identify each shape. I highly recommend purchasing this book at Books in Palo Alto or Keplers in Menlo Park. This story is ideal for children in Palo Alto who are learning to identify shapes and their defining characteristics.

palo alto

Image from amazon.com

For more math books and help with shapes, go to the website for Mathnasium of Palo Alto-Menlo Park: http://www.mathnasium.com/paloalto-menlopark

Manicure Math in Menlo Park

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Young girls in Menlo Park love getting their nails done with their moms! Why not bring your daughter to Mathnasium and then go to the nail salon and get your nails done with her? There are many nail salons near our Palo Alto-Menlo Park location. In fact, Charisma Salon is less than a block away from Mathnasium. Some other nearby nail salons include La Belle Spa, La Jolie, Lavande, and there are many more local nail salons.

Image from sassy-nails.com

In honor of the wonderful math and manicure theme, let’s solve some manicure related math problems:

1. At the salon you’re at, a traditional manicure costs $15 and a manicure with a special scrub costs $20. You get the traditional manicure and your mother get a manicure with a special scrub.

a) If you want to tip the manicurist 20%, how much money would the tip be?

b) How much money did you and your mom spend on your nails including the tip?

2. You find a nail polish color that you love and decide to purchase it. The nail polish costs $8. If sales tax is 7.5%, how much in total did you pay for the nail polish?

For more math problems and fun, check out Mathnasium of Palo Alto-Menlo Park: http://www.mathnasium.com/paloalto-menlopark

Addition Practice in Atherton

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Domino Addition by Dr. Lynette Long is a fantastic way to practice addition that makes young children feel like they are playing! This book will also help develop your child’s problem-solving skills without even leaving your home in Atherton! You can even play dominoes with your child after reading this book and throw in math questions as they go using this book as inspiration. By practicing math with this book, your child will learn how to count up to twelve. Each page has your child add up the dots on the dominoes as well as identify which dominoes have a specified number of dots on them. Once your child builds a solid foundation of adding to twelve, you can move on to more complex addition. This book is more geared toward children who are learning to add or who need extra review with basic addition. The answer to each question is on the following page and there is a review in the back making it easy to track progress. I recommend this book to all parents of children in the Atherton and Redwood City area who are beginning addition or will start learning addition in school after the summer vacation. And when you’ve read this book, you can begin playing dominos with your child!

Image from amazon.com

For more math books and games in the Atherton area, check out Mathnasium of Palo Alto-Menlo Park: http://www.mathnasium.com/paloalto-menlopark

Hot Cocoa Math in Palo Alto

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Hot Cocoa in Palo Alto Practice Math Problems

Hot cocoa is my favorite winter beverage! What’s your favorite thing to drink to keep you warm in Palo Alto’s cold winter weather? On a cool winter day, it’s nice to heat up with a scarf, mittens, and a hot cocoa. There are many wonderful places to get hot chocolate in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Some of my favorites places in the area to grab a warm chocolatey cup of hot cocoa in Palo Alto and Menlo Park are Mayfield Bakery, Deuce France, Calafia, Coupa Cafe, and Cafe Borrone. There are so many wonderful places in the Palo Alto and Menlo Park to grab a drink. Get yourself a cup of hot chocolate, and let’s get down to business- math style!

Image from img4-2.myrecipes.timeinc.net

Here are some hot chocolate themed math problems:

1. If a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows costs $4.75, how much change should you get from a $20 bill?

2. The diameter of the hot cocoa cup is 5 inches. (d=2*r) What is the circumference (C=2*pi*r) of the cup?

For more math problems and fun, check out Mathnasium of Palo Alto-Menlo Park: http://www.mathnasium.com/paloalto-menlopark

Subtraction Practice in Menlo Park

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Elevator Magic by Steven J. Murphy is a practical way to practice mathematics right here in Menlo Park with your child. If you need an easy way to incorporate subtraction practice with your child into your daily life, this is the book for you! Each place the kid and mom go in the elevator, the mom tells the child its is a certain number of floors down from their current location. You can practice similar exercises and concepts with your child. For example instead of telling your child which floor you need to arrive at, give them a math question and make them answer. Such as, “we need to go to 2 floors below the 7th floor” and you can check that your child pushes the elevator button for floor 5. As always, there are questions and practice activities for you to do with your child at the back of the book. The methods of testing your child on subtraction proposed in this book are ideal for children who struggle with subtraction or simply need extra practice to keep up in their Menlo Park school. I recommend Elevator Magic to parents in the Palo Alto and Menlo Park area who wish to practice subtraction with their children in an easy and manageable manner.

Image from amazon.com

For more math book reccommendations, check out Mathnasium of Palo Alto-Menlo Park’s website: http://www.mathnasium.com/paloalto-menlopark

Snow Math in Menlo Park

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Winter is finally here and as rain starts here in the Menlo Park and Palo Alto area, snow falls in the mountains. My favorite part of winter is the snowy mountains in Tahoe because snow means one thing- skiing! Don’t you love skiing? It’s so exhilarating! Before you hit the slopes, let’s practice some math. Here are some fun snow and skiing related math problems for you to practice with your child in Menlo Park before you get headed to the mountains:

Image from cdn.sheknows.com

1. At the beginning of the week there was 17 feet of snow on the mountains. On Monday there was 5 inches of snowfall. By Thursday, two inches of snow had melted. On Friday, there was a small snow storm that left two-and-a-half inches of snowfall. How much snow is there on the mountain on the end of Friday? (Note: 1 ft= 12 inches)

2. You want to buy a new pair of goggles. The shop you are at has a 15% off goggles sale. If the goggles originally cost $32, what is their sale price?

For more math problems and fun, check out Mathnasium of Palo Alto-Menlo Park: http://www.mathnasium.com/paloalto-menlopark

Lemonade Stand Math in the Silicon Valley

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Through Lemonade for Sale, a cute story of children running a lemonade stand written by Stuart Murphy, your child will learn how to keep track of sales using a bar graph. The kids in Lemonade for Sale are trying to earn enough money to repair their clubhouse. While selling lemonade in a town similar to those in the Silicon Valley, they rely on math to keep track of sales. This is a useful skill especially during the summer when your child prepares their own lemonade stand in the Silicon Valley. After reading Lemonade for Sale, your child will feel inspired to start making lemonade and setting up their own lemonade stand. At this point, this is the perfect time to suggest to your child that they keep track of sales using a bar graph. They will also gain practice with math through using money and giving change. At the back of the book, there are questions related to the content of the story and activities that will help your child build up their mathematical toolbox. I recommend this book to all children in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area who wish to start their own lemonade stand.

Image from amazon.com

New Year Math in Palo Alto

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Happy New Year! So many people make goals for themselves for the New Year like exercise more, drive less, etc. This year, make it your goal to make sure your child does math every single day! Here are some problems that relate to the New Year that you can do with your Palo Alto child.

newyearblog

  1. There are 365 days in a year. How many days have you been alive?
    Challenge: How many hours have you been alive?
  2. There are 60 minutes in an hour. How many minutes are there in a day?
  3. There are 180 days of school and each school day is 7 hours. How many hours do you go to school for each year?
  4. If you go to Mathnasium twice a week for one hour each time, how many hours do you spend at Palo Alto – Menlo Park Mathnasium each year? (52 weeks in a year)

As you can see, talking about the New Year to your Palo Alto child is a great way for them to brush up on their math skills. You can also quiz your child about New Year’s Celebration Facts. For example:

  1. Each New Years Eve, 1 million watch the big apple drop in New York City. There are approximately 64,000 people living in Palo Alto. How many more people will be in New York City than Palo Alto?
  2. 22% of people state they fall asleep before the New Year. If there are 313 million people in America, approximately how many people fall asleep before the New Year?
  3. The big apple weighs approximately 12000 pounds. How many more pounds does the big apple weigh compared to you?

For more math problems and information about Palo Alto Menlo Park Mathnasium, check out Mathnasium’s website.