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1. I am the author of the program called Mastering Math Facts, which everyone called Rocket Math. I have authored a new version entitled Rocket Math. Rocket Math is not a generic product and you are ripping it off. How is it that you are using my worksheets and my facts sequence and using the name Rocket Math? That is now a trade mark and I would like you to cease calling your worksheets by our brand name.

   Comment by Dr. Donald Crawford — November 30, 2008 @ 12:56 pm

2. Hello Dr. Crawford –

   Sorry we seem to have got off on the wrong foot, and the intentions here are obviously not to take away from anyone’s enterprise. I’ll set about renaming the material here.

   Really this site is about creating practice work in response to what’s coming home in my daughter’s backpack, and nothing more. Frustrated by not having more practice material and answer keys, and unable to find any other resources online I put something simple together using resources from the internet. Later, several friends requested I share. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to make available practice work for material our kids our getting graded on in public school… There wasn’t anything malicious intended here and I assure you nobody is making any money “ripping you off.”

   The target audience here is parents, and there are no designs on trying to market a curriculum to teachers or school districts, and the site has never represented itself as a product or service. For emphasis here, this site is about practice work in support of (not in competition with) the curriculum materials that schools are handing out.

   I have absolutely no problem making clear that there isn’t anything like a full classroom curriculum here and directing interested educators to your new site. The extra value that a full curriculum or training program adds certainly isn’t captured here and anyone that is sensibly in the market for a full set of classroom materials shouldn’t be thinking otherwise. I think you’ll agree that a bunch of worksheets isn’t doing much without qualified instruction.

   There isn’t anything sinister about the source of the problems. All of the worksheets (including the time problems, word problems and everything else) are randomly generated using simple rules. In the case of the rules used for the Rocket Math worksheets, it’s pretty easy to find these online and the source I used specifically is here…

   http://www.lincolnschool.net/oc_math.html

   You can appreciate that there’s nothing here or in other sources that indicates this wasn’t publicly available information, and the worksheets constructed for the site weren’t built using anything that appeared otherwise. Again, my intent wasn’t to cause you any grief.

   Similarly, the phrase ‘Rocket Math’ itself has been in use for quite some time, and apart from its widespread use by teachers for many years, there’s actually a clever interactive math web site using the name run by another Dad here…

   http://www.Rocket-Math.com

   This site has never described any material as being “the” Rocket Math program or anything similar, but it provides material in support of what parents, teachers and schools have labeled as “Rocket Math” and “Rocket Ship Math” for years. I did a quick search at the trademark office website and found no hits for this phrase, and it doesn’t look like anyone has been marketing a product using this name prior to this year. If I just missed it let me know, but at this point, I would think it would be tough for anyone to lay exclusive claim to this phrase. I’ll still get things renamed here to avoid any conflicts with your commercial product, but my point in applying it wasn’t to attempt to seize ownership of it or create some product with it… It’s just to try to make it easier for parents to find material online that matches up with the exercises their teachers are assigning.

   In that respect, I hope you’ll agree that making practice work accessible to parents and students is in everyone’s ultimate interests, especially our kids. I sincerely hope that aligns with your commercial interests as well.

   Best regards,

   Dad

   Comment by Dad — December 1, 2008 @ 10:24 am

3. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My daughter’s school recently started the Rocket Math program and it has been causing her stress. I try to practice with her at home, but it is not easy to constantly create new practice sheets with 2 smaller ones running around…and I’m a former math teacher. So glad I found this site! What a great resource!

   Comment by 2nd grader's mom — December 9, 2008 @ 10:40 am

4. Dear “Dad”
   Thank you so much for your magnanimous response. In my workshops I always encouraged teachers to have students take home their “rocket math” worksheets to practice at home each night. But I guess that doesn’t always happen, prompting you to re-create the worksheets and the exact sequence and the format of practice. I do appreciate your reference to our website, as it already connected us to some teachers who were looking for the completed classroom program. You are clearly a gentleman and a scholar.
   -Don Crawford

   Comment by Dr. Donald Crawford — December 10, 2008 @ 3:04 pm

5. Thanks for your support, Dr. Crawford!

   Comment by Dad — December 15, 2008 @ 11:25 am

6. What a great exchange. I began reading with worry and was happy to see Dr. Crawford’s response as I continued through the comments.

   Over the past few years, I have felt there has been more of a them against us feeling in education separating teachers, parents, administrators, and even other community members. It is important to remember that we are all here with the interest of what is best for children. Sometimes in our arguements we seem to forget why we are here in the first place. Our children deserve our best efforts. They deserve to see the people surrounding them working together. And, they deserve role-models for care and consideration for others as well as cooperation toward a common goal–in this case,their success and happiness.

   Thank you to both of you (Dad and Dr. Crawford) for your efforts.

   Comment by mom/teacher — December 17, 2008 @ 1:23 pm

7. Dear “Dad”,
   I want to thank you immensely for your website and free worksheets. My first grade daughter was “stuck” on list A of Rocket Math at school. She was stressed and tearful over the program. Her teacher informed me (after I questioned her about the Rocket Math program) that my daughter didn’t actually even qualify for the test, rather she qualified to trace numbers while her classmates moved up the scale. Her teacher opted to put her (and the four other classmates who scored similarly to her) on list A with the rest of the class. Until I found your website, she was unable to pass the tests. Now a few weeks later she is studying for list J, and she passes her tests usually on the first try or the second. Thank you so much for providing a valuable service. I can’t thank you enough.

   -A happy mom

   Comment by Happy mom — February 19, 2009 @ 5:45 pm

8. Happy Mom -

   That’s got to be the best comment I’ve received so far on the site… Thank you.

   I’m so pleased for your daughter’s progress! Please give her a big “high-five” from me!

   Dad

   Comment by Dad — February 19, 2009 @ 6:15 pm

9. HI… I am very interesting in implementing space ship math. My daughters school does not use this program. How can I assess her to know what level she is?

   Comment by love2teach — February 22, 2009 @ 10:41 am

10. Hi LoveToTeach -

    There really isn’t a specific assessment process associated with the worksheets here… What I would do is simply start with level ‘A’ of whatever operation you’re working on and work your way up. The worksheets are meant to be one minute timed tests. If your daughter is passing them easily, you might try advancing two levels at a time until she is either unable to complete the test or is missing more than two or three. It may take a half dozen or so tests for you to find the right level, but the review is always good practice!

    Good luck!

    Dad

    Comment by Dad — February 22, 2009 @ 11:48 am

11. Dear Dad,

    My son started rocket math in school, so I started looking on line for ways to help him practice, and found your site. Thank you so much, it’s helping him so much, and he’s loving it to!!!!

    Comment by Mom of 2 — August 20, 2009 @ 1:58 pm

12. Dad,

    Thank you for all of your efforts on this site. Very impressive! My son used your multiplication worksheets during 1st Grade to practice for school quizzes and he finished the school’s timed tests in less than a month. He is very excited about math and your worksheets help me keep him challenged. Thanks again.

    Comment by 2nd Grade Dad — October 2, 2009 @ 7:52 am

13. Dear Dad,

    My granddaughter is a 1st grader and so distraught over “Rocket Math”. I think it’s a good concept, but she also does not bring home anything where her parents or I can help her. Thank you for posting this assistance. I must also commend Dr.Donald Crawford for being such a gentleman in his response to you. I am glad he understands that we all want to help and you were so gracious as to take the time for the tutorial help. Thank you both so very much!

    Comment by Lexa's Nana — October 13, 2009 @ 4:37 pm

14. Brilliant – both Dr. Crawford and Dad. My 3rd grader did this last year and we were thrilled that we finally had an effective tool to memorize math facts (previously was the dot adding, which we are still hoping will go away, bad habit). The entire strategy when explained and understood is so simple and elegant – internal competition when they don’t even realize what they are accomplishing. But teachers being over worked were frustratingly slow sending home the sheets for us to copy for practice, creating boredom instead of regular repetition and advancement. Now the 2nd grade is using it, and we were running into the same problem – passed level D but not getting E to start on for weeks. This is a great resource for parents to make learning foundational math facts fun and easy. Dad’s website only adds to the value for schools. Parents cannot buy this but want to support the techique and this gives us an easy way to do that. Thanks to you both, math is fun again!

    Comment by kt — October 16, 2009 @ 11:09 pm

15. Dear Dad,
    Thank you so much for this website. My second-grade daughter is also stressing over the rocket math. As I am typing this, she is crying because of worrying about the level she is on. She is a perfectionist, and has never done well in timed tests, from kindergarten on. I haven’t seen any supplemental materials from her teacher that I could help her practice, so I am very grateful to have this resource to help her practice at home. I, too, appreciate your response to Dr. Crawford. In this world of posts and blogs and email, many people lack the netiquette skills of a thoughtful person…thank you for your well thought out and gracious reply.

    Comment by Caprice — October 25, 2009 @ 5:49 pm

16. Thank you to all who have been writing. I am the co-author of Rocket Math with Don Crawford. I am getting increasingly concerned that teachers are misusing or misunderstanding the use of the Rocket Math curriculum. Don and I train teachers all over the country and we are very careful to discuss how to teach parents to practice with their children so as not to induce stress. We have many ideas for this. I do not wish to take away from Dad’s website as he has been most gracious in his support of our curriculum, but would love to have parents visit our site so that we can assist in students’ stress and parents’ discomfort around Rocket Math.

    Comment by Randi Saulter — October 30, 2009 @ 8:06 pm

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