This time of year, I start to feel restless anticipating the freshness of spring. Here in the Midwest, it’s been snowing, blowing, and just plain cold for several months. I long to shed my winter coat, for more daylight, green grass, and garden fresh produce. The excitement of new school books and supplies has long worn off. If you’re like me, you’re counting down the lessons so you can trade your math text in for a dip of your toes in the creek. In the mean time, I’m going to share some fresh ways to dump those winter doldrums using math. “MATH?” you say. Yup that’s right, math!
Our 10
year old daughter has recently taken up cooking and baking. She loves to measure, pour, decorate, and
create. Cooking is a really great way to
learn math. When following the recipes,
she’s discovering fractions, measurement, time, and temperature. At Christmas she re-calculated to double and
triple recipes. She started with
cookies and cakes, but it doesn’t have to be elaborate. For younger kids, you can start with
something as simple as Jell-O or Rice Crispy Treats. The important part is letting them do the
measurements using math to learn.
Our 8 year
old son loves to draw. He started with
tracing stencils and is now experimenting with compasses, protractors, and
various rulers to get just the right look.
He is realizing images are made up of all kinds of lines which form
circles, squares, trapezoids, and triangles.
Geometry is a major part of drawing.
While waiting for warmer days, encourage your kids to create scenes of
spring using a variety of lines and shapes.
Do you
remember playing store when you were a kid?
This is a great way to teach decimals, money, and budget skills. Give your child a set dollar amount and
grocery list. Let them look through the sale
flyers and find the best bargains. Or,
assign monetary amounts to grocery items around the house and let them “shop”. Our daughter loves historic dolls. She has catalogs from her favorite
company. I give her an imaginary budget
and she has fun making lists of accessories she could purchase with that
amount. It doesn’t take long for the
child to figure out how to get the most for their money when it’s something
they desire.
Blow the
dust off those game boards. Games use a
multitude of math skills including number recognition, sequencing, addition,
subtraction, and counting money. It’s a splendid
way to get the whole family involved in math. There are a plethora of
commercial math related games such as Rack-o, Shut the Box, Monopoly, and
Dominoes on the market. But don’t feel
like you have to go out and purchase a pre-boxed game, you can make your own by
using simple items around the house. There
is a wealth of games you can play using a basic deck of playing cards. Search online or find books at your local
public library with game ideas. YouTube
and Pinterest are super sources for finding game plans. Any good math program should also have
suggested games for reinforcing concepts in the teacher’s guide.
As spring
draws near and your math text starts feeling stale, try a fresh approach by
cooking, drawing or playing store and a variety of games. But, don’t let that snow melt without
building a snowman or igloo. It’s the
perfect teachable moment to introduce spheres and cubes!
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