I tell many students this same story because we have all kinds of muscles - even math muscles. Like working in the weight room, the more we "work out these muscles", the stronger they get.
How do we help our kids have fun with "math exercise" during the summer? Math is everywhere! Embrace it as a family. Help children discover every day math.
1. Grocery store - When you are at the store, solicit your youngster's help.
- As you pick up an item, talk about rounding the cost of each item to the nearest dollar and then estimate the total cost of the grocery bill.
- Point out the weight of non-perishable items. If you buy 3 cans of diced tomatoes and each can is 12 ounces, how many ounces do you have? If you pick up a quart of juice, work together to figure out how many one cup servings it has.
- Are you a coupon clipper? Have your child help you figure out the total savings.
- If you buy two dozen eggs, how many eggs do you have?
2. Going out to dinner - Keep the wee ones busy while the food cooks.
- What will the total bill be? How much of a tip should you leave?
- While your food is being prepared, use the menu to figure out the cost difference between one meal and another.
- If you only had $20 to spend, what could you order for two people? Will you have any money left over?
- How many items on the menu are priced between $7.95 and $12.95?
3. Planning a trip - Battle the "Are we there yet?" blues.
- Make a budget for expenses - transportation, lodging, food, and don't forget the souvenirs. Maybe even give your resident travel guide the actual money to pay some of the bills.
- Compare costs - what's the better deal?
- How far will you travel? Measure the distance from one stop to the next and keep track of the total miles traveled.
4. Plant a garden and watch your child's pride grow.
- Plan the garden design. How many inches will there be between each plant?
- Measure the dimensions of the garden and figure out the perimeter for fencing.
- Keep track of how high the plant is growing and graph it.
- How much time do you spend in the garden? Log your time. Total it up and convert it to hours and minutes.
5. Cooking - The yummiest way to have fun with math!
- Embark on a culinary venture and use fractions. Double the recipe and do the math. Figure out how many quarter cups you need if the one cup measure is missing.
- Planning a party, how many servings do you need?
- Measure, measure, measure.
- If you have 22 baby carrots and four family members, how many should each person get? What will you do with the extra?
6. Summer Olympics - August 5 - August 21 - Mark your calendar.
- Who will win the most metals? Graph it by country.
- Who swam faster? Is there a new world record? By how much?
- Create our own Olympic races in the yard. Keep track of time. Measure the distances run or the number of jumping jacks done in sixty seconds.
7. Have a Lemonade Stand and spark entrepreneurship.
- How many quarts of water is needed to make a gallon of lemonade? How many cups can you sell?
- If the lemonade mix costs $3.49 and you pay with $10, how much change will you get?
- A customer buys a cup of lemonade and needs change. Figure it out together.
- Count the coins you earned.
- If you sell all the lemonade, how much will you earn? Learn about a profit.
So embrace math this summer. Make it come alive and keep those math muscles strong because if you don't use it, you lose it. The possibilities are endless. What are your family favorite math challenges? Share your ideas. We all learn from each other.
