A Helpful Resource for Math (and Coding)
How to Not Suck at Math, part 16
This is my series on how to get better at math.
Previous posts in the series can be found at this link.
Posts 1-5 are not behind the paywall. Parts 6 and beyond are, but this link will give you 10% off. If you’d like to get them but can’t afford a paid subscription, email me at hollymathnerd at gmail dot com and I’ll give you a free one.
The Joy of Certainty
Welcome back to How to Not Suck at Math!
One of the things I love most about math is how grounding it is.
The world may be chaos, but math isn’t. It offers structure. Clarity. Certainty.
A place where rules are real and every problem, no matter how tricky, has a solution that actually works — and can be proven. Coming out of a long depressive spell, I’ve been finding my way back into math, and it’s felt like returning to bedrock. Cold, solid, and safe under my feet.
I know a lot of homeschooling parents feel uneasy about math. They worry that if they get it wrong, they’ll shortchange their kids in a way that matters — not just for college, but for life. That fear is valid.
Math is a gatekeeper subject, and a confidence killer if it’s handled badly. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s the main reason I started this series — to help parents who feel under-equipped teach math well, even if they never felt fluent in it themselves.
Whether you’re a homeschooling parent, a self-learner brushing up on skills, or a student tackling math (and now code), this series can be helpful for you.
Project Euler: A Goldmine for Homeschooling Parents
One tool I’ve been spending a lot of time with lately, and will be using more in this series going forward, is Project Euler — a freely available archive of brilliant, bite-sized math and programming problems. These problems are perfect for building fluency in both math and code.
Don’t worry if you’re new to coding or rusty on math—Project Euler starts simple and grows with you.
Each one has a simple numeric answer, but solving them teaches deep skills: pattern recognition, abstraction, factoring, recursion, algorithm design, and number theory. They’re also surprisingly fun — especially if you or your kids enjoy puzzles or logic games.
Behind the paywall, I’ve started sharing:
- A structured walkthrough of Project Euler problems in order,
- Python starter code with comments for learners,
- Refresher material on the math involved, and
- My own solutions, including alternate methods and optimization strategies.
I also have suggestions for how to get started with code, or to get your kids started with code.