A course for people math left behind

Because

Mathematics is a way of keeping honest records of amounts, pieces, and change. Thirteen ideas. Each one starts with the reason it exists, then a thing you can move, then the official name.

Begin with counting

About an hour if you go slowly. The toys are the point, not the reading.

Amounts

How we name how many.

  1. 1Counting is matchingA number is a name for how many things you matched.
  2. 2Why ten gets a bundleWe reuse ten digits. Position says what size bundle you mean.

Combining

Amounts coming together, or the gap between them.

  1. 3Addition puts amounts togetherPlus means: treat these groups as one group.
  2. 4Subtraction does two jobsThe same dash either removes, or measures the gap.

Groups

Addition, once the groups are equal.

  1. 5Multiplication is equal groupsTimes means groups of. It is addition, organized.
  2. 6Division asks one of two questionsShare fairly, or ask how many groups fit.

Parts

Names for a piece of one whole.

  1. 7A fraction is a fair cutThe bottom is the cut. The top is how many pieces you mean.
  2. 8Decimals extend the bundlesAfter the ones, each seat is a ten-times smaller piece.
  3. 9Percent means out of 100A share, rewritten against one agreed whole: a hundred.

Direction

Zero is a starting line, not the bottom.

  1. 10Zero is a starting lineNegative means the other direction, not a ghost amount.

Balance

A sentence that says two amounts are the same.

  1. 11An equation is a level balanceEquals means: these two sides are the same amount.
  2. 12A letter is a closed boxx is a name for an amount you haven’t pinned down.

Change

A picture of two amounts moving together.

  1. 13A graph is a picture of pairsEach dot is one true pair. The line is many pairs, shown at once.