Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Bedtime Math

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Purpose
  
Educational

Founder and President
  
Laura Overdeck

Official language
  
English

Director of Communications
  
Sandy LoPiccolo

Bedtime Math 7657presscdn039pagelynetdnacdncomwpconten

Type
  
Non-governmental organization, Non-Profit Organization

Location
  
Summit, New Jersey, U.S.

Bedtime math car wash of doom


Bedtime Math is a non-profit organization focused on mathematics education for young children. Its founder, Laura Bilodeau Overdeck, launched the venture in February 2012 with a website and a daily email that provide a playful daily math problem for kids to do with their parents, much like a bedtime story. The organization has been featured in the New York Times parenting blog, USA Today, and NPR; its books have been featured on NPR's Science Friday and reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. News outlets hailed its fast-growing following as "heartening news for educators who bemoan the state of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the U.S." There are over 70,000 subscribers to the daily math problem. In March 2014 Bedtime Math launched its free nationwide after-school math club, designed to make math truly recreational for kids. Within months, the organization had received over 2,000 orders for free math club kits serving over 30,000 kids in grades K-5. In 2015, an article in the journal Science reported on a randomized trial that found use of the Bedtime Math iPad app improved performance of first-graders in math at school, especially among those whose parents had high math-anxiety.

Contents

Bedtime math ninja training


Offerings

  • Nightly math problem: Bedtime Math’s core offering is its daily math problems for kids, broadcast by email and posted daily on the website’s homepage and Facebook page. The mental math problems are designed “to promote both giggles and mathematical thought” as a means to “increase ‘math awareness’ in our everyday lives.”
  • App: The organization delivers the same daily riddles via a free mobile application for Android and iPhone OS.
  • Books: Based on the daily blog’s popularity, Overdeck has also published three children's books, Bedtime Math: A Fun Excuse to Stay up Late (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, June 2013), Bedtime Math: This Time It’s Personal (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, March 2014), and Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, March 2015). Overdeck donates 100% of her book royalties toward Bedtime Math’s programming.
  • After-school math club: Seeing the need for repeat experiences to reshape kids’ perception of math, Bedtime Math developed Crazy 8s Club, a free kit that any school or library can use to host 8 sessions of a weekly math club. The nonprofit received orders for nearly 1,000 kits across the U.S. within weeks of announcing it.
  • Summer of Numbers: To reverse the well-documented “summer slide” in children’s math and reading skills, Bedtime Math created a summer math incentive program for libraries, in which kids track their daily math using gold star stickers on a calendar. The program is now part of the Collaborative Summer Library Program’s slate of offerings.
  • Videos: For Math Awareness Month in April 2013, Bedtime Math produced four short math comedies for both kids and adults to enjoy. The videos have garnered over 80,000 views combined.
  • Pajama parties: In response to requests for hands-on programming, Bedtime Math first created a free "pajama party" activity kit for libraries, unveiled in March 2013. Within 6 months over 600 libraries across the U.S. had held Bedtime Math pajama parties, serving over 20,000 children. Bedtime Math eventually retired this offering and absorbed the content into the bigger Crazy 8s initiative.

    • References

    Bedtime Math Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA