Delta STREAM

Now the fun begins! Soon you will meet like-minded parents, share advanced young math resources, and play lots of games!

Thank you for contributing to the campaign, and pledges of volunteer work on translating, editing, and contributing rich games for the playground crowd!

Congratulations to babies, toddlers and young kids of the world, and their parents, and to everybody who supports advanced math for them!

Moebius Noodles will be a free, Creative Commons book and community about advanced math games, for parents and educators of children birth to five.

We’ve been running a crowd-funding campaign to support it during the last week. Here are the updates:

• We are at 60% 86%, with time till 11pm (Eastern US) today, September 20th, to get the rest.
• About 100 people contributed money, with very heart-warming messages, and several times that are spreading the word about advanced young math to the audience now counting in hundreds of thousands: http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles/progress?page=1
• Dozens of people pledged various support: games for future books, Creative Commons music for media, translations, non-profit umbrella and so on

How can you play with us?

• Contribute to the crowd-funding campaign! Your $1=MILLIONS (of kids playing advanced math games worldwide). http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles
• Play our first social game! Photograph your baby, toddler, kid group or yourself with a Moebius Noodle (paper Möbius strip). Put it anywhere online and drop me a note or use #moebiusnoodles tag. We will make a slide show, with a link to your site, blog or Twitter. You can learn about easy activities with paper Möbius strip at Cut The Knot (Alexander Bogomolny), one of the sites supporting the campaign: http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/moebius.shtml Here are entries from yesterday, including Moebius Noodles Marinara:
  
• Spread the word! Tell your friends and colleagues about the campaign, today.
• Volunteer with Moebius Noodles! You can send us young math games, translate the materials, or answer parent questions. The next stage of the project is starting now!

Previous updates:

• $1=MILLIONS poster with happy kids playing the games: http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-poste/
• Friday campaign update, with FAQs, and a few of the hundreds blogs, sites and people spreading the word: http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-the-waves/
• Examples of games: http://beebopparade.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-is-moebius-noodles.html
• Secret rewards for contributors (paper books, custom games and more), blog badges, detailed descriptions: http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-fundraiser/
• Fan video from http://mathfour.com (Bon Crowder), one of the sites supporting the campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFRmwGCpldg

I am deeply grateful to everybody who pledged their support to Moebius Noodles, by spreading the word, offering more game ideas, signing up to translate, and contributing money to the crowd-funding. It is very validating!

Moebius Noodles will be a free, Creative Commons book and community about advanced math games, for parents and educators of children birth to five. How can you participate?

1. Contribute to the crowd-funding campaign before Tuesday evening. Your $1=MILLIONS (of kids playing advanced math games worldwide). http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles
2. Play our first social game! Photograph your baby, toddler, kid group or yourself with a Moebius Noodle (paper Möbius strip). Put it anywhere online and drop me a note or use #moebiusnoodles tag. We will make a slide show, with a link to your site, blog or Twitter. You can learn about easy activities with paper Möbius strip at Cut The Knot (Alexander Bogomolny), one of the sites supporting the campaign: http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/moebius.shtml It’s easy, like this:

Natural Math Club in Cary, North Carolina, USA supports advanced math for young kids! #moebiusnoodles

3. Spread the word! Tell your friends and colleagues about the campaign, today.
4. Volunteer with Moebius Noodles! You can send us young math games, translate the materials, or answer parent questions. The next stage of the project is starting now!

More info:

Long list of people who contributed from $1 to $500 to the campaign: http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles/progress

$1=MILLIONS poster with happy kids playing the games: http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-poste/

Friday campaign update, with FAQs, and a few of the hundreds blogs, sites and people spreading the word: http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-the-waves/

Examples of games: http://beebopparade.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-is-moebius-noodles.html

Secret rewards for contributors (paper books, custom games and more), blog badges, detailed descriptions: http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-fundraiser/

Fan video from http://mathfour.com (Bon Crowder), one of the sites supporting the campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFRmwGCpldg

Wide badge:

Narrow badge:

Moebius Noodles is a free book and community we are building for parents and educators of children birth to five. We are running a crowd-funding campaign for it, which ends in three days, September 20th. Even $1 makes a difference! Please contribute today, and tell the friends!

Why?

1. You get math activities that go deeper than just counting and shapes.
2. Opportunity to have an excellent community develop materials specifically for your family or your class
3. Free materials to use, share, change, distribute, under a Creative Commons license.
4. Children worldwide will have have free access. Translation volunteers are signing up!
5. Proof of concept that not only big corporations, but grassroots groups can sustain curriculum development
6. Confidence and support teaching math using your own talents, in your own ways
7. Support for using what you already have around the house for cool math games

Links

The fundraiser site: http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles
Friday’s updates on the campaign, with links to blogs supporting us: http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-the-waves/
A short description of the project: http://beebopparade.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-is-moebius-noodles.html
More info, including the secret rewards (printed books, custom games and so on): http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-fundraiser/
The latest pilot – a P2PU class where you can see some of the materials: http://moebiusnoodles.posterous.com
A short video from MathFour.com, one of the supporters of Moebius Noodles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFRmwGCpldg

We are building a Creative Commons book and support site for parents who want to enjoy math with their kids. We need to raise $6200 in a week to launch the project.

Updates:

1. An awesome video, FAQs and links to some supporters in “Moebius Noodles 2” post.
2. Poster “$1=MILLIONS” with all the happy kids playing our games

The project, starting with the book, will build a community providing peer-to-peer support for parents in ways not currently available elsewhere. From responses from our pilot tests with local math clubs and online parent classes, we expect users of Moebius Noodles to significantly change their approach to early education and their very definition of what mathematics means. We start with the existing parents’ needs and wishes which we have studied and analyzed. We address those, but take them to the next level of mathematical sophistication.

Please contribute to the Moebius Noodles fundraising campaign, and spread the word on your blogs and sites about helping to create open and free materials for the youngest mathematicians!

Why are we doing it and why do you care?

1. There are very few materials and no community support for smart math for babies and toddlers. Just try to find anything that is not about counting or simple shapes! Mathy parents create opportunities for their own kids, of course. But without support and resources, it’s very hard even for the rocket scientist mothers and fathers. We want to change that!
2. Peer-to-peer learning, research and development groups in mathematics education need a process for crowd-funding their projects. We are the trailblazers for other fabulous communities that want to make open and free math materials with the support of their members, such as the group developing materials for learning mathematics through music, the play math network, and the math circle problem-solving depository project.
3. We are creating OERs – Open Educational Materials, under Creative Commons license. It means people can access, use, modify and share the materials for FREE. Imagine the project you support translated into any language in the world, and used freely to support young kids everywhere!
4. The activities are sustainable in many senses. You can use everyday household items and recycle materials for Moebius Noodles games.
5. If you are a parent or teacher who loves arts and crafts but is afraid of math, the book will help you teach your kids mathematics through your talents. If you are a math or science geek who envies other families always doing neat art projects, the arts-math bridge in the book goes both ways!

Badges for your site or blog:

<a href="http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles"><img src="http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/MoebiusNoodlesFundraiserBadge2.jpg" alt="Moebius Noodles Fundraiser Badge" width="200" height="174" /></a>

<a href="http://tippingbucket.org/projects/moebius-noodles"><img src="http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/MoebiusNoodlesFundraiserBadge.jpg" alt="Moebius Noodles Fundraiser Badge: Math for babies and toddlers" width="100" height="337" />

We need to raise $6200 to launch. Please go to Tipping Bucket.org – “Change the world, or your money back!” is their motto – read more about the project, and donate today. The campaign ends September 21st. Even $1 helps to make this family math dream a reality! We also have these secret rewards for supporters, not shown at the fundraiser page:

Secret Rewards

Pledge $5 or more – Point. You will be recognized as an official SUPPORTER on our site, PLUS you will receive a limited-edition hand-numbered Moebius Noodles thank-you card with your very own Fibonacci number.

Pledge $13 or more – Interval. You will be recognized as an official MATH MAKER on our site, receive a Moebius Noodles card, PLUS a PDF copy of the book, PLUS participant access to our online support community.

Pledge $34 or more – Square. All of the above, PLUS one souvenir page of notes taken down during our brainstorming and planning sessions, PLUS a printed copy of the book.

Pledge $89 or more – Cube. All of the above, PLUS you can put a two-line dedication by one of the games or stories in the book, with your family name(s) and a brief message to the world.

Pledge $233 or more – Tesseract. You will be recognized as an official PATRON OF MATH MAKERS on our site, PLUS receive one PDF copy and two printed copies of the book, PLUS a secret message with your or your child’s name will be an example in one of the games, PLUS you will get behind-the-scenes access to our work to observe, in detail, the process of making the book.

Pledge $610 or more – Infinite-Dimensional Space Master. Everything included in the Tesseract level, PLUS you will have the power to influence the contents, look and feel of the book, PLUS the authors will design a custom math activity around your child’s interests, name it after your child and include it in the book.

Description from the TippingBucket letter

Math + Kids = Cool! (and confident, and creative, and coordinated, and capable… you get the picture)

How many of us grew up frustrated, baffled and intimidated by math? Multiplication tables, algebraic equations and of course the dreaded story problem. But a group of parents and teachers (some who love math, and some…well, like the rest of us) have come together to create a “math therapy” book of activities to help introduce kids as young as 2 to the power of math in their everyday lives. The games are designed to spark curiosity, make core concepts memorable, and build kids’ confidence in their ability to master math. Got a drop to help publish a book of “math therapy”?

More details – what’s in the project!

Here is a part of the description we prepared for parents participating in the project:

Cool math concepts. Parents want interesting games for kids. Moebius Noodles games introduce such exciting and beautiful concepts as symmetry, fractals, coordinate planes, functions, transformations, grids or topology. Yes, these concepts are accessible even to toddlers!

Babies are welcome. Parents want deep and meaningful activities for babies and toddlers. No other published materials systematically collect and adapt advanced math topics for the youngest set. Our secret source? Oral traditions of generations of math-y families!

Math that grows with your child. Parents want activities for multiple ages, abilities and styles. Our games are adaptable to a wide range of ages and can grow and get more complex as child’s skills, abilities and interests develop and as parents get more comfortable with playing advanced math with kids. This makes our games ideal for families with siblings of different ages – while instilling the mathematical value of continuity of knowledge.

Math your child owns. Parents want activities that match their children’s passions. Some children love to paint, others – sing, dance, build, tell stories, pretend-play. Some children love animals, others – sports, spaceships, computers, dolls, science labs. Each game description includes plenty of variations and suggestions to help kids bring math into their own worlds.

Active and open support group. The “Moebius Noodles” book develops within a community of parents who share stories and photos, discuss examples, modify games, and ask and answer questions. You are welcome to browse a wealth of supporting materials, get peer help with your personal situation, or share your original ideas, modifications and suggestions for improvements.

Math therapy for parents. For those who feared and disliked math in school, growing up with a firm belief of being bad at math, this book offers a second chance. Forget all that pain! Simply look at and experience the math-rich world around you through playing and exploring together with your child. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you will grow your math eyes.

Even more details – DRIPS analysis!!!

Demand [does it meet a real need?]

Readiness [can it move forward soon?]

Impact [will it make a difference?]

Propriety [does it fit the context?]

Sustainability [will it last?]