Kids love math. They look forward to pages of practice sheets. They love spending hours on algebra. Okay, maybe not. Most kids don’t like math and most adults don’t either, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
There is so much math in real life that, until kids are older and they want higher level math, they can learn it through real life experiences.
Here are a few suggestions of things you can do with kids to make math fun.
Young kids
- Count things; toys, books, crackers, toes, whatever you are doing, just make it fun.
- Sort things; match up toys by color, size shape.
- Talk about different shapes; soup cans are cylinders, cereal boxes are rectangular, etc. Don’t go out of your way to make it a lesson, just make it part of your day. You could say things like “I’m going to use a round plate.” Or “Do you want a square cracker or a circle cracker?”
- Point out numeral prefixes; “your tricycle has 3 wheels and a triangle has 3 sides, tri means 3”, “if an octopus has 8 tentacles, how many sides do you think an octagon has?”
- Talk about what times things are happening and have a clock where your child can see it. If you hang a clock at a childs level, they will use it more often than if it’s up high. Buy an inexpensive one and let them touch it. If it breaks, your only out $5, it’s not a big deal.
- Have a scale available. Let them measure themselves and mark on a chart how much they weight. How tall are they? Have a growth chart.
- Have rulers and tape measures available and measure things.
- Once they are old enough to not eat money, give them some.
As they get older
- Teach them to add, subtract, multiply and divide once they need it. Or if you want to teach it, give them a situation where they can use it.
- Order pizza, talk about the diameter. How many slices are there? Talk about fractions.
- Do some baking to work on fractions. Make a double or triple batch, or a half batch.
- Go shopping. Compare prices of similar items. Is the big box really cheaper? Teach the how to find out. Help them figure out how much the sales tax will be (if any).
- Make a budget with them and see if they can stick to it.
- Do a woodworking project that requires measurements.
- Discuss negative numbers and explain debt. How do credit cards work? What is interest? How does a mortgage work?
Each person will have different interests and will do things differently. When my son was about 8 years old an opportunity came up for him to practice some math. Our friends owned a pizza restaurant and were thinking of getting a vending machine for employees to have snacks. My son said he would get one and take care of it. He shopped online and found a small counter top machine that held about 50 snacks. He borrowed money from me and had a payment schedule to pay back the loan amount with interest. He purchased candy bars, gum and beef jerky. He learned all the best stores to shop at to get the best prices. I drove him to the restaurant every week so he could take out the money and refill the treats. He got a bank account and a debit card (in my name because he was too young) and kept a ledger of what he spent and what he made and he paid his weekly loan payments. After about a year they restaurant was being remodeled and they didn’t have space for the machine. He was also loosing interest by then, so it was a good time to be done. He sold the vending machine online for the same price he bought it. The loan had been paid off, so it was all profit. He also ended the project with about 30 extra candy bars. He was one happy kid, but in the process he learned many life skills.
Each family has their own situations that may come up. You don’t need to recreate what someone else is doing. Just do your own thing and involve your children. Maybe you are building something and your child can help measure, if you’re buying a car, involve them and discuss the costs involved, trying a new recipe, let them measure.
It doesn’t have to be a big project for kids to learn. They will learn everything they need to know through everyday life, if you involve them.
