This blog has been brewing for a few years, and in a season of de-stressing and decompressing following the fall semester exams at my school, I have finally had the chance to choose a theme and dive in. I’m a math teacher, but I don’t view myself as a math expert; I love math for its patterns, and I love being able to follow a bunny trail that pops up in the midst of a math problem. The predictability in some areas, the open-endedness in others, I love it all. I meet my limits at times, but at others, I discover afresh things that have already been discovered.

As a mom of many children, I have spent lots of time on counting activities that crop up informally. There are many ways to make numbers familiar, and familiarity can minimize the fear, even put the magic into math. My articles will be designed to discuss ideas for instilling that magic in the early years and re-igniting it in later years, depending on your needs. No guarantees, of course, because every child is unique, one of a kind, but let us make the effort to make math less of a stress and more of a challenge to be embraced. Off we go!