World Maths Day: “Beat ’em!”

“A day late and a dollar short!” That’s my motto around here; it should become the subhead for my blog.

Because yesterday was World Maths Day. Yes, yesterday. But why stop now? Let the mental gymnastics continue! Besides, my two youngest children, Gavin (10) and Maggie (9), are addicted. All they want to do is practice math, though, of course, that’s the sneaky part — they don’t view it as practice.

Ever since their teachers signed them up in anticipation of World Maths Day, they can’t get enough of it. It’s pretty simple. They were registered through the school, a membership that allowed them to play in one-minute math competitions against other children from around the world. Like most good ideas, it’s simple and so easy to use.

For days now, Gavin has been at the computer exclaiming to anyone in earshot, “I’m playing Cameroon! I’m playing Brazil! I’m playing Japan!” The idea thrills him.

Maggie was just signed up yesterday, after days of watching her brother have all the fun. This morning, an excited Maggie cried from the television room, “MOM, I’M PLAYING AUSTRALIA!”

I had to laugh when Lisa yelled back, “BEAT ‘EM!”

You can go here for more information. From what I understand, it’s not too late to enjoy  the fun. More than 2 million students from 37,000 schools in 200 countries are registered. So far, there have been more than 500,000,000 correct answers. Thanks in no small part to the obsessive efforts of Gavin and Maggie!

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

4 comments

  1. Mary Szczech says:

    Isn’t math great!! I loved this youtube video! Thanks for sharing it!

  2. Mike Waldenmaier says:

    Way to go, Gavin!

  3. jimmy says:

    Mary and Mike, thanks for reading the blog — and thank you, especially, for signing up my kids for this terrific program.

  4. gavin Preller says:

    just got over 4,000 pionts, cool video too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.