Judy A. Brown is the Math Program Manager for Sylvan Learning, a 30-year career math educator with many years’ experience teaching, writing curriculum, editing, creating web resources, and helping students and parents become successful in math.  She makes math come alive, even fun.  You should see her desk.  It’s filled with math puzzles and games that attract passers-by, stimulate their imaginations, challenge their brains, and no one even suspects – until she tells them – that they’re doing math!

Please welcome back a valued friend on the blog and a frequent guest blogger.  Here’s Judy….

Algebra Challenge Offers Great Back-to-School Prizes

Each summer, parents worry that their children will forget everything they learned during the school year. To encourage math learning and discovery outside of the classroom, Sylvan Learning is offering Sylvan’s “Forward" to School Algebra Challenge for parents and teens. Parents and teens can participate in this sweepstakes at www.SylvanChallenge.com, but the contest ends on September 30th.

Algebra is crucial to a teen’s success; mastering algebraic concepts inherently leads to greater success in high school mathematics and, eventually, to greater success in college and a career. This fun and interactive contest will not only help middle and high school students and their parents improve their math skills, but it will also prove to be a stimulating summer activity that offers the chance to win great back-to-school prizes.

During this time of the year, families are looking for ways to save money on back-to-school supplies and are in need of scholarship opportunities.  By participating in Sylvan’s Algebra Challenge, local parents and students can win instant prizes including gift cards to Starbucks, Amazon.com, and Target; Texas Instruments graphing calculators; laptops and subscriptions to www.SylvanMathPrep.com - a new, online math resource for families of students in grades seven through twelve that features on-the-spot math guidance during homework time.  Additionally, the winner of the first prize package will receive a $5,000 college scholarship, laptop, subscription to SylvanMathPrep.com, and a graphing calculator. And, the grand prize winner will receive a $10,000 scholarship and a yearlong subscription to SylvanMathPrep.com!

Sylvan’s Algebra Challenge has two elements.  The first section is open to teens hoping to improve and retain their algebra skills.  The other section engages parents hoping to revive some of their long-lost math skills so they can become a better resource for their children during homework time in the new school year.

Students and parents earn entries into Sylvan's Algebra Challenge by answering a daily, multiple choice math question, with additional entries for correct answers and referring friends.  Students and their parents can enter the sweepstakes once a day - until September 30th.

The Algebra Challenge questions target the concepts taught in middle and high school classrooms and in Sylvan’s “Forgotten Math for Parents” seminar – a year-round, interactive workshop designed to help parents and family members during homework time by reviewing the key math concepts that are introduced in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. This free, 90-minute seminar is scheduled at local Sylvan Learning centers.  Parents move from station to station and are able to choose the math area they need to review in order to make homework time more manageable for the whole family.

To register for Sylvan’s “Forward" to School Algebra Challenge, visit www.SylvanChallenge.com. To attend a free, “Forgotten Math for Parents” workshop and learn how every math concept a child faces from fourth to ninth grade is actually an essential component of algebra, please visit www.SylvanLearning.com.