Mathing With Your Kids: Compass Circle Art!

^{(Image via Housing a Forest)}

We're always looking for fun ways to "math" with our kids—especially considering all the downtime during winter break! That said, we love blogger Tammy Dube's compass painting activity featured on her blog Housing a Forest. Its simplicity gives much leeway for children's innate creativity to unfold as they create their own masterpieces while playing and learning about circles.

Grab some paper, watercolor paint, a small paintbrush, some tape (in case the paintbrush doesn't quite fit the compass), and of course, your trusty compass to get started! As you and your kids play around with circles, why not experiment with radii (the distance from the center of the circle to any point on the circle; singular: radius) of different lengths and see how that affects the circle's size. This is also a great opportunity to introduce older kids to math terms like circumference (the distance around the circle) and diameter (the distance across the circle).

What's your favorite math-friendly craft activity?