Bedtime Math’s Summer of Numbers Program Offers Free Calendars to Curb Decline in Students’ Math Skills

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The national non-profit organization Bedtime Math, whose mission is to make the nightly math problem as common as the bedtime story, announced today it will make its popular “Summer of Numbers” calendar available for free to parents across the country who want to help children avoid the so-called “summer slide”in math skills over the school vacation.

Education experts say school-age children can lose several months’ worth of math skills during extended school breaks, as their learning routine is interrupted and other activities replace homework and classroom time.  The New Jersey-based Bedtime Math has garnered national attention for its simple but effective approach to making math fun all year long by giving children math-focused stories before they go to sleep.

When parents order a “Summer of Numbers” calendar from the Bedtime Math website (www.bedtimemath.org) and register online, they receive a daily math problem via email (or on the free Bedtime Math app for iPhone) that can be read each night to their children.  The problems come with three or four levels of difficulty to appeal to kids of all ages. Children place a gold star sticker on the colorful calendar each night they tackle a math problem.

“We firmly believe that learning math skills can be a fun, engaging and exciting family activity,” Overdeck says.  “Parents, grandparents, and anyone who cares about education can encourage the children in their lives to learn, without making it feel like homework,” she says.

“Summer of Numbers” calendars were offered to public libraries nationwide this spring; to date more than 50,000 have been ordered.  Bedtime Math Founder Laura Overdeck says she’s also aiming to reach families who want to do it on their own, or where libraries are not yet participating.

Bedtime Math’s mission has caught fire in the media, and in an increasing number of platforms.  The group and its website was featured in The New York Times, TIME magazine, and on NPR in the past year. Its email list has grown to more than 30,000, and its social media community on Facebook and Twitterhas grown exponentially.  In June, Macmillan Children’s will publish the first of three Bedtime Math books.  Bedtime Math can be found online at www.bedtimemath.org.

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