Yet another brilliant idea from a savvy parent, blogger, and astrophysicist! :)
Laura Bilodeau Overdeck, from "Bedtime Math," started by giving her older children math problems before bed. The task encouraged them to focus on the problem and it also worked well to quiet them down in time to go to sleep. When her 2-year-old shouted out that he wanted a problem of his own, too, she and her husband knew they were really on to something though. They now have a blog following of over 5,000 and parents can receive the math questions via email every day (which perfect if you have a smart phone, tablet, or laptop that you can carry into your child's room at night right before bed...).
Laura has a few simple ideas about how to use Bedtime Math on her site, encouraging parents to 'not sweat it' because 'it's not official.' Instead, it should just be fun! It's really just another simple (but powerful) way to get your kids thinking about math outside the classroom. Because kids are sponges, we want to surround them with what they are learning day and night!
As a teacher, I would recommend this site to your students' parents! It would be a great resource for them to easily use. Or, as each update offers several differentiated questions, it would also make a great resource for daily warm up exercises or post-lesson anchoring activities.
And have you seen any other great ideas floating around on the web lately or do you have an idea you'd like to share? Feel free to leave a comment below so I can share your ideas with the world!
