Family Multiplication Study: invitation for the second round
April 1st, 2009I would like to invite you to participate in the second round of a research and development effort called Family Multiplication Study. Every week, participants choose an activity, helping their children write, design, draw, fold, program, define, conjecture and otherwise author some mathematics of their own, related to the broadly defined multiplicative conceptual field. Participants can also request activities to be developed for them, and develop their own. This study group is perfect for people who like to try new things, actively communicate with other families, help their children understand deep ideas based on multiplication, and help the world by building an innovative and open learning resource. The first round was energetic and active, with about thirty families participating.
Participants from the first round said it helped them have more math in their lives, provided accountability for regular math activities, allowed to meet other families, answered particular questions, and supported seeing math as beautiful, useful and fun. I started this research because there is a glaring lack of materials out there that even attempt to help children become authors of mathematics, or help families customize their mathematical experiences on the activity-to-activity basis, rather than choosing whole curricula.
