Math Happiness Project

If you've seen circles connected by lines in your child's math homework, you've encountered number bonds. You might be wondering what they are, why teachers use them, and how they help your child learn math. This post will walk you through everything you need to know about number bonds and how they support your child's mathematical thinking. What are number bonds? A number bond is a visual diagram that shows the relationship between a number and its parts (aka how numbers break apart and come...

Helping children build confidence with subtraction is an important step in their early math journey. In this post we will walk you through how to help your child with subtraction for basic fact problems like 9 − 4 or 7 − 2 using three practical strategies that help your child make sense of subtraction. These ideas intentionally move beyond worksheets and drills. They focus on helping children see what subtraction means , connect it to everyday life, and link it to what they already know about...

Math doesn’t have to be all about worksheets, workbooks, and flashcards! One of our favorite ways to spark mathematical curiosity at home or in the classroom is through a simple yet powerful activity you might already know from the non-math world: “Would You Rather?” In this game, you present two scenarios, and your child chooses which one they’d rather have and explains why. In our math version, though, all of the scenarios involve mathematical thinking . We first discovered this approach...