Press

Mathnasium will host its first annual National TriMathlon Day for 3rd through 6th grade students this coming Saturday, May 14 in Downtown Summit (86 Summit Avenue, Lower Level #4; just up from the train station and Summit Diner) as well as at more than 200 participating centers across the US. Math-lovers and sceptics alike are welcome to what promises to be a fun-filled event with giveaways for all participants and prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.

Numbers might seem as basic as our ten fingers, but for the Amazonian Pirahã people, whose language lacks numbers, trading with surrounding tribes can be confusing. After eight months of classes, not one of the adult Pirahã could learn to count to ten. This research, published in Science and Cognition, sparked controversy among linguists. But it drives home a deeper point for the rest of us: number sense is not automatic, but must be acquired, like words, in childhood.

Is your fourth grader freaked out by fractions? Does your high school junior tremble at trigonometry? If so, then James and Jodi Ralston have just the solution...

James and Jodi Ralston want to make math come alive for kids of all ages. That is why, after careers in engineering and teaching, the couple opened Mathnasium centers in Chatham and Summit in 2009. "If you go to the gym[nasium] to work out your body, why not come to Mathnasium to work out your mind?"

Mathnasium of Chatham and Mathnasium of Summit are learning centers where students go to improve their math skills -- to catch up, to keep up and to get ahead in math. One-to-one instruction is offered to students in elementary and middle school math, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus and statistics.

For parents who worry that their children are either getting left behind in math or aren't getting far enough ahead, owners Jodi and James Ralston have opened Mathnasium, with offices at 650 Shunpike Road, Unit 1, Chatham Township, and 86 Summit Ave. in Summit. The phone number for both offices is (973) 377-6284...when it comes to preparing children for the next school year...

Mathnasium, a leading math-only enrichment and tutoring center with locations in both Chatham Township and Downtown Summit, will extend its business hours to include morning, midday and evening sessions throughout the summer, from June through Labor Day Weekend. Mathnasium offers summer programs at both locations to help elementary, middle and high school students strengthen their math skills and confidence, and to prepare them for what lies ahead in all their academic studies.

Our mathematical intuition or "number sense" comes from the ability to understand math's underlying concepts so that we can think mathematically as needed. Unfortunately, this important sense can often be lost to a child without correct or sustained attention and nurture.

Children of a variety of ages come daily from school into a building nestled into the Hickory Tree Shopping Center, smiles plastered across their faces, even though they know they'll be working on math for the next hour. But at Mathnasium, where children are greeted by their first names when they walk through the door, that's totally normal, according to owners James and Jodi Ralston.

From simple arithmetic to algebraic equations and integral calculus, math can be intimidating for many students. For others, the subject’s complexities are understood with almost startling ease —a gift of abstract reasoning that, with the right nurturing, can lead to success in diverse areas from engineering to medicine to music to the world of finance.