Insight into the Development of <em>That's Math!</em>

While developing the That’s Math! membership site, that launches today, we’ve had some interesting discussions about wording. Because of our different backgrounds, we’ve had to have some lengthy clarifications. Bon, with her technical math info, and myself, with ethical/credible research wording.

Below is a rough “transcript” sample compiled from a couple of discussions.

Bon: Math anxiety makes it so that kids lock up – they’re paralyzed with fear and then can’t do math.

Wil: Well, actually, the anxiety they experience doesn’t prevent them from doing math. It just makes it much more difficult.

Bon: And That’s Math! will fix that.

Wil: No. We aren’t trying to “fix” anything. Just help parents with positive math exposure.

Bon: And the research proves that the parents talking about math in front of kids will take care of that. Got it.

Wil: You have to be careful with that word “prove”. We have to say the research suggests that kids who have a supportive environment are more likely to engage in math exercises and homework. Part of that support is talking about math in a positive way.

Bon: Great! So we support the parents by helping them discover math that happens in their environment.

Wil: Right. And the exercises we’ve designed help parentes to practice saying that math in front of their kids. When the kids hear Mom and Dad talk about math, the kids learn to be not so scared of it.

Bon: We act just like we see our role models act. Mom says “hey, there’s math” instead of “I was never good at math, it’s so hard!”

Wil: Right. It’s called social modeling. We pick up on what other people do, whatever it is. There’s all kinds of research to support that social modeling is how we learn how to act.

Bon: So “social modeling” is doing stuff where kids see it. And if parents use that for math specifically…

Wil: Exactly and…

Bon: …and BAM! Their kids will love math and be geniuses!!!

Wil: It doesn’t mean they’ll love math or be geniuses!

Bon: But it will get them closer to being geniuses.

Wil: Well, there’s research that supports that they are likely to engage more, so I guess you could say they’re getting closer to being geniuses.

Bon: Virtually proving that using positive math talk like we teach in That’s Math! will improve your kids’ grades.

Wil: Dude. You’re killin’ me. But I like the enthusiasm.