Good morning Everyone!

Some of you might meet with me last night during the Holiday Bash that University of Phoenix and NewportMommy did together. It was FANTASTIC! It was not just about a great entertainment, more importantly, it was a great energy going around between the staffs from University of Phoenix and the NewportMommy moderator. I am a big fan of Christmas, Thanksgiving kind of season; I love the candies, the cookies, the colorful red and green, the Christmas tree, and then, last night, on the top of all my favorite things, the kindness plus the smiles plus the integrity of the individuals who organized the event...it was absolutely AMAZING!

The theme of my table was about Holiday celebration and Math; would love to make a big gigantic table size scrabble games out of M&Ms...next year, maybe ;)....This year, I wanted to make my blog series of MATHLICIOUS in action...math is supposed to be delicious, yummy in a sense that it is fun to learn and meaningful. That was my intention.

With this blog, I wanted to thank you for all parents who stopped by on the table and who let me spent some good quality learning time with your child. I did take my time, I did not rush as I individually attended every child...  just the way I believe it. To create an environment whereby a child could learn and feel safe and confident and challenged, even though it is only 5 or 10 minutes, is crucial. It creates a "sensible and meaningful learning" for the child, and at the same time, it is fun. I could not have done it had you, as parents, decided to rush or be impatient. Hence, I find it very important for me to write this blog the next morning to thank all of you who were patient and kind to make my intention came true. 

This blog is spontaneous; it is not edited as I consider this a holiday card...whereby no editing is necessary, no perfection is aimed for.

I adore Steve Jobs, and one of his saying was " There gotta be a better way" and I believe that...there gotta be a better way in EVERYTHING...there gotta be a better way in learning math, learning reading, learning writing, building a relationship with each other, building a community and on and on...with this belief, I would leave all of you by sharing what my motto is in my learning relationship with my students:

Great isn't Enough

Thrive for Excellence

Avoid Perfection

Master what You Do

Do What You LOVE

With that in mind, my message to all parents and educators and all of you is to remember that " Learning does NOT start with WHAT; it starts with WHY." With "why", all of the sentences above make sense...

Thank you...and with warm wishes, enjoying the holiday season of 2016 and the upcoming year of 2017...

Dr. Chandra Budi

Founder and Educator

Unconventional and Resourceful Learning (URL), LLC

Email: itworks@urltutoring.org

www.urlitworks.org

"Every Mind is A Gift; Nurture it as GIFTED"

Mathlicious Ideas...

When you are home with the children, and candies or cookies are everywhere...you could:

If your child is 2 or 3 years old and has not yet known number, you could start with drawing a snowman with 5 circles on top of each other, and put the number 1 on the first circle, 2 on the second circle, etc.

Ask your child to put the matching number of cookie or candy as you wrote on a particular circle...

If your child is 4 or 5 years old and ready for some basic additions, then you could draw any number of circles for the snowman and write whatever additions equations you find appropriate for your child's level. Ask your child to solve it and then, put the appropriate amount of candies or cookies or etc on a certain circle.

If your chid is 6 to 8 years old, then, mix them up...you could make frosty fractions...for example, draw 5 circles and write: 1/5 of the snowman is red, 2/5 is green, and the rest if purple... :)

 Or, you can do counting by and connect it with the idea of basic multiplications...and make a christmas tree or holiday tree...two circles for top, then 2x2 on the next one ( the number 2 two times), then 2x3 on the next one ( the number 2 three times), etc...

If your child is learning percentages...well, get some shopping list and have fun with it. A sweater costs $45 and Mom has $5 coupon plus if we go to the store by 2:00pm, we got 12% discount...how much do we pay in the end?

Some divisions will not be forgotten...we have 20 guests for our holiday party, and we have 45 cupcakes ordered...oops...!! what's the best way to divide the cupcakes? ...

The ideas as infinite...make it fun, connect it with daily simple situations, add some thinking process in it by tweaking the scenario a bit ( just like life..we do tweaking in life all the time :) )....

Chao! Until next time...