Family Math is Fun!

In my school district, we are all about reading.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I, too, truly value reading and have always loved reading to my kids.  However, in my last few years as a math coach, I find myself constantly thinking, "What about math?"  So one of my goals this year is to foster making math more visible in our schools and in our community.

My colleagues and I brainstormed ways to reach out to our parent community.  Research shows that if we want our children to grow a love of math, then we need to make math fun at home.  We decided to start by creating monthly math challenges for families to tackle together.

We shared this PBS article - Instill a Love of Math - with parents.  Then we announced that each month we would offer some themed math questions for four grade bands:  Kindergarten, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6.  We challenged families to do the math together and then double challenged them to notice math in a typical day and make it come alive for their children.

When brainstorming the first round of questions, sports instantly came to mind.  It was important that the questions be open ended with multiple solutions.  I found myself not only thinking hard about sports scenarios for each developmental level, but for the Grade 5-6 band I even did some research on current ticket prices to make this math truly real life.

Here are our sports related math challenges for families.

This is just one of our ideas to promote the love of math with families.  I am so excited to hear feedback from parents and students.  It's all about the little things we do to make a difference in our learners' lives.

What do you do to foster the love of math?  Share your ideas.  We all learn from each other.