Arizona News

1. Math Standards
2. When you get to this website scroll down to the middle of the page and select things out of the online math resources (box on right side). There are many free things in this site as well as e-book you can buy for a very nominal price homeschoolmath.net
3. Early childhood finger fun: How many ways can you make four?
   • 1 finger plus three fingers
   • 2 fingers plus 2 fingers
   • I finger plus I finger plus 1 finger plus I finger
   • five fingers take away one finger

When the child has mastered all five fingers and combinations use both hands:

4. Being able to factor (fining the numbers that you multiply together to get a number)
   For instance: 36 is the same as:
   • 2 times 18
   • 3 times 12
   • 4 times 9
   • 6 times 6
   • 2 times 2 time 9
   • 3 times 3 times 4
   • 2 times 3 times 6
   • 2 times 2 times 3 times 3
   • 4 and 9 (and all the rest of those numbers in the dots above) are called factors.
   • The last one 2 times 2 times 3 times 3 are prime factors. Prime numbers or factors cannot be broken down any further:
5. Math definitions are very precise. Get a good math dictionary for instance. The word prime is defined: A number that can only be broken down into exactly 2 distinct factors, one and itself. That is a hard notion. Lots of people think that one is a prime number. It is not. The word distinct means two different factors. 1 times 1 is 1 but the two factors are the same! 2 is the first prime number because it can be broken down into 2 times 1 and nothing else. Helping your student understand the exactness of math words will put them ahead of the game.
6. Often times you child's textbook is a wonderful reference. Look for a website at the publisher's site. Often times they have an interactive that kids can do at home! For instance McGraw Hill has interactive stuff even if you don't have that book. It is wonderful! www.mhschool.com/math/2003/student/ Check out how much you can use. Fact dash at the bottom is fun!