Prepare For Summer: Three Ideas For Summer Math
Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean that you put math in mothballs. Here are some ideas you might want to use to sneak some math problems in during summer:
Money
Put your kid(s) in-charge of money for an outing. When I was ten-years old, I joined my Mom for a two-week work trip. She put me in charge of some of our spending money. I not only had to keep track of what we had, what we could spend, but I started to understand what “to budget” meant. You can do the same. You can do this when you:
- Go out for dinner
- Shopping at the grocery store or Farmer’s Market
- The movies (what treats can you get after you pay for tickets?)
- The local garden store or nursery
- The corner store for a treat for the family
The list goes on and one. Give it a try.
How Far Have We Gone?
With the advent with so many on-line mapping devices, it is easy to calculate how long a trip will be, in both mileage and time. So, have your kid (who is probably more computer savvy than you) figure out how many miles or long it will take when you are planning to go somewhere. It can be a walk to a friend’s house, a drive to a local museum or a plane flight.
Check these sites to help them map it out:
A Problem Based Upon The Day
There are very few kids who LIKE to do math word problems, but if you disguise them, they can be seen as fun.
Create a problem that has to do with a real-life challenge, based upon something they want or something you are trying to do. For example, if you’re having a dinner party with ten people, have your child figure out how much food you will need or simply how many chairs. I would do it like this:
“We are having ten people over for dinner tomorrow. I want to cook chicken with asparagus and rice. A two-pound chicken will feed approximately four people. One bunch of asparagus will feed three people. One cup of rice will feed three people. How much do we need to get of each item?”
You can also add in a zinger like, “One of the ten people is a former football player so he will eat as much as two people” or simplify it, by asking, “How many glasses will we need to set the table if we need a wine glass and water glass?”
Go in either direction. It will take you all of two minutes to write it down, but it will take them ten minutes to solve. And most importantly, they will feel that they have had an important role in planning a function and used their brain in a helpful, positive way. It makes them feel more a part of your life.
Try these three tips to keep math a part of your life all year round.
July 17th, 2010
