$12x multiplication chart$

Once I did that, I knew how to fit other ideas into the circle: months, degrees, seasons, moon cycles, elements, the color wheel, and the music scale.

I realized that if I combined the most used triads, ABC and XYZ, I could fit the rest of the letters in pairs around the clock. One day I was impatiently waiting for something, looking at the clock as I was dividing up the letters for my project. I sketched and struggled for a few weeks. When the 3 year old was a little younger, I decided to work on a project that would combine numbers and letters. I am a high school substitute teacher, graphic designer, and parent, with a degree in Cultural Anthropology. Since the hoax was relatively benign, we are keeping the original write-up here as a memento/archive. You can see some discussion in the comments. We hope you can make something similar from pictures.

The sites linked here still exist, though the products aren’t commercially available.

What got them started and what keeps them going? What are their math dreams and worries? If you lead a math circle, an engineering club, or an informal playgroup, we would like to hear your story or interview you. In 1001 Leaders, the companion series to our 1001 Circles, we put the spotlight on the leaders themselves. In our 1001 Circles series, we feature math circles stories from the point of view of a circle leader, who acts as an invisible tour guide. You can see how the ideas for student activities come up as a grown-up is playing, exploring, and designing. Have you ever wondered how Montessori designed all the activities with her beads, or how Cuisenaire came up with the base ten rods? Here is Joey’s story about a colorful multiplication wheel that helps children and their adults explore factorization and primes. His journey to math play with kids started with designing tools and devices. Today, our guest is Joey Grether, an unbridled idealist, parent, and teacher.