Mathnasium Richmond Opens their second location in Midlothian

Mathnasium Richmond is growing! Mathnasium just opened their second Richmond location in Midlothian and their goal is to be the best source of math education services in the Richmond area by doing the following:

• Provide every child on every visit with a positive experience with math.
• Teach every child in a way that makes sense to them.
• Work on the right concepts at the right time based on the parent’s goals for each child.
• Communicate with parents, teachers and students effectively and regularly to ensure we are meeting their needs and expectations.

Your feedback is tremendously valuable to us and we encourage you to let us know if we are meeting the goals listed above or if there is any way we can make the experience better for you or your child.

News & Reminders:

• We have expanded our hours this Fall. Mathnasium will be open Monday to Thursday from 2:30 to 7:30pm and Saturday from 10:00am to 1:00pm. These hours start on September 7th. In general, our busiest time is around 5pm on weekdays. Please schedule other times if it works for your family.

• Homework help as well as preparation for quizzes and test is now an integral part of the Mathnasium program for parents who want those services. We will discuss your needs in this area in detail when you enroll for the Fall.

• Everyone who has previously been given a Mathnasium assessment can come back at any time for a free assessment. This is a great way to check-in on how your child is doing before starting the school year. Give us a call to schedule an assessment if you are interested.

• Game Nights will be coming back in the fall! We are scheduling one game night a month during the school year and look forward to seeing everyone join us for some family fun. Bring a friend!

• Mathnasium is now on Mathnasium’s Facebook Page and Twitter. Join us there for announcements, news and specials only available to our “friends” and followers.

• We are offering two referral programs this year. Parents will get $50 off their next month membership if they refer someone who signs up for a Mathansium membership. The person you refer will also receive $50 off their first month. Additionally, we are excited to offer an incentive program for the students. Currently enrolled students will receive a $20 Target gift card if they refer a friend who signs up for a Mathnasium membership.

• We continue to look for ways to help our local schools. Please get in touch with us if you are involved at your child’s school and know of a way we can help.

Mathnasium is an advertiser of Richmondmom.com.

Spend time “mathing” with your child to prevent the summer slide!

By James Temple, Center Director, Mathnasium of Richmond

No doubt most parents spend time reading with their children on a regular basis. It is not hard to find an educational or child development expert who insists that this time is key to not only the proper development of core language skills and a healthy imagination but also key to the relationship between a parent and child. Less common but equally important for similar reasons is time spent “mathing” with your child.

Mathing is simply doing math with your children and does not have to take the form of working through repetitive mechanical math problems over and over again until everyone is bored out of their minds! The goal of mathing with your child should be to engage them in mathematical thinking in a way that reinforces number facts, develops number sense, encourages problem-solving development and creates in them a passion for math. It should be fun!

Researcher after researcher has told us all about the dreadful summer slide and how as a result of having few educational experiences during the summer months away from school, children tend to lose months worth of learning. Daily mathing, as well as reading, with your child are great ways to turn a potential learning loss into a learning gain!

The examples below will give you a starting point for your mathing time. You’ll quickly find that opportunities for mathing exist throughout your daily interaction with your child making it easy to find the time in your busy schedule.

Car Math: A car ride, whether short or long, presents many opportunities for mathing. Use license plates or signs with numbers to work on number facts. Play a game where you pick a single digit number and everyone in the car has to find it’s ten friend (ie. 1+9 = 10, pick the number 1 and look for a sign or license plate with a 9 in it). You can add, subtract, multiply, divide, cut in half or a combination of all of them to keep it interesting.

Store Math: Any time you are spending money is a good time to do some mathing. Play the estimation game by having your children estimate how much your purchase will be by rounding up the price to the nearest dollar and adding them up. You can also have them pick an item and figure out how much change they’ll get from a $5, $10, or $20 bill. Maybe if they get it right they get the item!

Restaurant Math: Middle schoolers should be comfortable with calculating percentages and there are some easy ways to calculate 15% or 20% which are commons tip amounts. Next time you are about to pay for a meal have a competition to see who can figure out the tip amount first. Maybe that child gets to ride in the front seat.

Cooking Math: Cooking is a great time to work on fractions. Let your young chef help you figure out how to double or triple your recipe. I need ¾ cups of sugar. How much will I need if I double it? This is a great time to visualize math by measuring the ingredients separately and then combining them to see the result. Cooking is also a good time to build familiarity with measurements. What does a cup of something look like? How about a gallon?

There are so many ways to spend time mathing with you child that you only need to be looking for the opportunity to find them. We hope your family enjoys mathing as it will be a great way to prevent the summer slide! Please share your mathing experiences with us at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Your idea could be featured in one of our next posts.

Mathnasium is a math only learning center where children from Pre-K to 12th grades catch up, keep up or get ahead in math. Mathnasium has flexible summer programs that focus on giving kids a positive experience with math while addressing their specific needs. You can learn more about Mathnasium’s Summer Math Camp by clicking here. Contact Mathnasium with questions by calling 804-364-3333 or emailing (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Mathnasium has locations in Short Pump and Midlothian. Find out more at www.mathnasium.com.

Mathnasium is a sponsor of Richmondmom.com; request our free Savvy Saver Card for FREE sessions at Mathnasium.

Husband’s death causes mom to find new way of life: at Mathnasium
by JoAnn Temple, Co-owner, Mathnasium Richmond

After marrying very young, I was the first in my large family to graduate from high school a year and a half later. While raising our four sons I began to have the desire to go to college and become a teacher.

I decided to take classes, part time, at the local community college to test my insecurities about returning to school. To my surprise I did very well. It took four years of juggling family, work and school to get my associate degree but I realized a sense of accomplishment upon completion. I also worked at an early intervention/rehab facility that serviced young children with developmental disabilities.

As I continued working there for 11 years I was able to be involved with many different aspects of the agency. I gained valuable experience and a love of working with children. Due to a change in my husband’s job we moved to another state where I began working for the local public school system in their early childhood special education program.

As a paraprofessional in a classroom of children 3-5 years old with developmental delays, I began to realize the importance of children getting the individualized help they need in order to be able to succeed academically. I found it especially rewarding to work with children with autism. To be able to make a connection with a child where there appears to be no hope is indescribable.
My son James and I often talked about going into business together. With his sense of business and my love of children we felt we could be successful at a business involving children that would service a need to the community.

Life often throws us unexpected curves and we have to learn to adjust. Sadly my husband of 34 years passed away last February leaving me with a decision to make about how to proceed with my life.

James was just graduating from Darden School of Business with his MBA and it seemed as though the time was right to come together to begin new careers for both of us. This past year we saw our dream realized as we became the owners of Mathnasium of Richmond. Although the circumstances of opening a business together did not happen in the way we originally envisioned it would it has been a very exciting and rewarding experience.

Mathnasium is a learning center that helps children develop their math skills, and this type of business offers the best of both worlds for James and I. With his undergraduate degree in mathematics James is not only great at teaching the all levels of math but has a wonderful sense of business and customer service.

I, on the other hand, can use my many years experience working with younger children and families to meet the needs of the children who come to us for help.

We are excited about the help we’ll be able to provide the Richmond community meet their math education needs.

Mathnasium has a great offer for free tutoring/homework sessions on the Richmondmom.com Savvy Saver card, and hosts free, fun activity nights for kids. Check them out!

Mathnasium offers free trials to all Richmond students

Mathnasium is one place where learning math is actually FUN. The family who owns Mathnasium—the Temples—truly has a love of math and uses games and creative hands-on excercises to help kids of every age-from toddler to adults studying for exams. First trial is FREE and you can use the offer on the Savvy Saver card as well for free monthly sessions. Give ‘em a try!