Holiday school vacations are approaching. If your kids are anything like my daughter, they are counting down the hours! For many children this means sleeping late, eating extra sweets, shopping, and extra screen time. Mathnasium of Littleton reminds you to add some fun math activities to the festivities. Here are 10 fun (and sneaky) ways to add math to your school break!
Don’t go buy workbooks for your kids, though. Sharpening math skills can be fun and provide great family times. The kids won’t even notice the math that you are sneaking into the fun. Here are a few suggestions.
- Play a game. Math games are great, but any game where kids keep score, use money, or count help with numerical fluency. At Mathnasium of Littleton we love games because they are fun and provide lots of opportunities for divergent thinking. Plus, kids don't think they're doing math when they play games!
- Bake something yummy. Using a recipe as it is written requires many math skills such as exact measuring, understanding sequences, counting. This is a great way to introduce basic concepts to children eight and under. Older children can learn even more by doubling or tripling a recipe. They will learn proportional thinking, and to know when precision is necessary versus when estimating is okay. If it won’t ruin the day, let kids make mistakes. A loaf that doesn’t rise or a super spicy salsa makes a bigger impact about precision than someone hovering over a child. And if they follow the recipe precisely, they are rewarded with eating and sharing their creation.
- Get musical. Music has many opportunities to talk about fractions and proportions. Don’t worry if you can’t play Rachmaninoff or can’t carry a tune. Try just clapping the beat to a favorite holiday song, like “Little Drummer Boy” or “Chanukah, Oh Chanukah.” Learn to play a simple song together, like “Old MacDonald” using sheet music. Older children could explore different time signatures, but younger children should stick with 4/4 time signatures (quarter notes get 1 beat, a half note gets 2 beats, a whole note gets 4 beats).
- Get artistic. Drawing requires exploring topics such as geometry, proportional thinking, ratios and patterns. As you draw together talk about how using proportions helps create the illusion of depth. You can also explore geometry with curves, angles, lines, and shapes. To get realistic pictures, precision is important. You can also try enlarging a picture using the grid method. If drawing is too far out of your comfort zone, there are great coloring books that provide opportunities for discussion, too.
- Do an experiment. Find a science experiment that plays into the interest of your children. Got a gymnast? See if the head angle affects how long he or she can hold a handstand. Have a pet lover? See if Fido will sleep longer with different blankets or lighting. Love rockets? Make a film canister and alkaselter rocket outside on a sunny day. Try to predict what happens with a larger piec of aklaseltzer, more water, or a different liquid. Science and math go hand in hand.
- Start a small business together. Earning extra spending money is a great motivator. Help your child create a business. Calculate expenses and profit opportunities. Create a budget. Talk about how to market their business. Make a projection about how much money they can earn in 2 weeks and then 1 year. Kids will learn to calculate using decimals, use patterns to make predictions, and increase numerical fluency. Easy businesses for children to start include services like babysitting, yard maintenance, snow removal and dog walking.
- Make something. Building things provides great opportunities for math. Building requires making a plan and following a sequence of steps, similar to the way students must attack challenging math problems. It also requires kids to measure accurately and calculate ratios. Sewing also provides these opportunities.
- Have them help make travel plans. When kids help with travel plans they know the parameters of the trip. Not only does this help with math, it cuts down on complaining. Travel plans include making a budget, deciding on a timeline of activities, looking at weather patterns and packing. Kids will need to use all types of math skills to help plan a successful trip. One mom we know says she pays siblings to get along on long car rides. Then any souvenirs or special treats they want come out of their “getting along fund.” Not only do the kids get along better, they also learn how to budget their money.
- Go shopping. Take the kids shopping for presents. Set a budget and tell them who they need to buy gifts for. They will learn to add, subtract and multiply with decimals, use money, percentages and proportional thinking. Don't forget to budget for sales tax! Ask questions like, “If Sarah gets a $300 Lego set, does that leave enough left over for everyone else on the list?”
- Come into Mathnasium of Littleton. We don’t just make math make sense, we have fun with it, too. We are open Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving Break and most of Winter Break! We have our Annual Parent’s Night Out (Kid’s Party) December 16 from 6-8pm featuring crafts, food and fun games! We’re also offering a Winter Break Multiplication Boot Camp for any student wanting to brush up on their multiplication facts. It’s 10 hours of instruction and practice for $289! Call 303-979-9077 for more information!
This article was written by and owned by Cuttlefish Copywriting, www.cuttlefishcopywriting.com . It is copyright protected. Mathnasium of Littleton has permission to use it. Other Mathnasium locations should contact Heather at [email protected] before using it.
