mathwithbaddrawings.com

What It Is

Math with Bad Drawings is an English-language popular math blog run by American math teacher and author Ben Orlin. The site’s title literally suggests “math with terrible hand-drawn sketches.” Its core positioning is not as a serious textbook, but as a place that explains mathematical concepts, math writing, classroom games, puzzles, and observations on education through humorous prose, simple illustrations, and storytelling. The crawled content shows that the author has published books such as Math with Bad Drawings and Change is the Only Constant, and is currently recruiting puzzle playtesters for a new book, Puzzle Planet.

Core Features

The site mainly offers a long-running stream of blog posts covering mathematical thinking, puzzles, teaching activities, book promotion, and reader interaction. Its article archive runs from 2013 through 2026, giving it a substantial depth of accumulated content. Readers can subscribe by email to receive new posts, and can also join discussions in the comments section. Its standout strength is turning abstract problems into playable scenarios—for example, using “werewolves, hair samples, and two tests” to explain binary testing and ideas in information encoding, which is especially valuable for teachers designing classroom discussions.

Pricing

Reading the blog and subscribing by email appear to be free. The site does not display a membership paywall or course pricing; its commercial side mainly comes from the author’s books, talks, or activities related to new books. The crawled text did not provide specific book prices, so it is not possible to determine a complete paid offering structure.

Pros and Cons

The biggest advantage is its highly approachable style, helping shift math from “getting the right answer” to “ways of thinking.” Many articles are suitable as materials for classroom introductions, math clubs, parent-child reading, and heuristic teaching. Some content is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license, making it convenient for non-commercial educational use. The downsides are that it is not a systematic course, with no clear grade-level pathway, exercise system, or learning progress management. It also requires a relatively high level of English reading ability, and its WordPress blog format makes search, categorization, and deep mobile learning experiences only average.

Who It’s For

It is best suited to math teachers, math enthusiasts, middle and high school students with strong English skills, parents, and puzzle lovers. If your goal is improving exam scores, drilling practice questions, or following a structured Chinese-language curriculum, it is not the first choice. But if you want inspiration for mathematical expression, classroom activities, and ways of thinking, it offers substantial value.

Access in China

The main site is hosted on WordPress.com, which may usually be accessible directly, though stability can vary depending on the network environment. The site also involves external services such as Facebook, Google Forms, and WordPress login, which may be restricted in mainland China. Overall, it should be considered “partially restricted.”