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Using simple items from around the house, parents can easily help their children learn math skills. Here are some tips and games to play for learning math. An added benefit to many of these tips is that they will help your child learn math required for daily living.
A Deck of Cards:
Play the card game War, except lay down two cards each and either add them or multiply them and whoever has the largest sum or product wins the cards.
Play a speed challenge with two or more children. Lay two cards down and the first one to give the correct answer to the product or sum wins those cards.
Give them a set of cards from Ace (which will be the number one) to ten. Mix them up and have the child add them. He can tell immediately if he made a mistake because the answer will always be 55. Alternatively, start with 55 and have the child subtract the cards and if he is right, he will always get zero when the last card is presented.
Money:
Open a savings account. Even very young children can open a joint savings account with their parents. Teach her how to balance the statement she receives in the mail.
Teach your child how to write checks and then on the day you pay bills, let her write the checks and help balance the checkbook. Children love helping out on what they consider to be a very adult job.
Have your child cut out coupons that you will use at the grocery and then give her the money that you saved. Encourage her to put this money in her savings account.
In The Kitchen:
Help your child learn all about fractions by cooking and using measuring cups and spoons.
Use sugar cubes to help learn about volume. Take small boxes and see how many sugar cubes fit inside it and record it. Then take other boxes and fill them and soon they will see what volume in math means.
Teach how to read nutrition labels.
Use candy such as M & Ms to divide into color piles and write down what fraction of the whole is yellow, how many are red, etc. When finished, eat them!
Catalogues and Junk Mail.
Give the child a catalog and let him do a dream order. Have him write up the order on the sheet, total it, and figure tax. Alternatively, give him a certain budget to adhere to and tell him what he needs to purchase. Then let him figure out what to order and calculate it.
Have the child figure out the actual cost for an item when it’s shown as a certain percentage discount.
Have your child compare the credit card offers you receive in the mail to see which one is the best deal. This teaches him how important it is to read the fine print.
Paper:
Make Fraction Strips. Cut a piece of paper or poster board into a 12 inch strip. Then cut more strips in various fractions that fit onto that strip. Cut one whole strip in fourths, one strip in halves, one in thirds, sixths, eighths, twelfths and sixteenths. Now show the child how they can fit with each other. For example, it takes sixteen of the 1/16th pieces to cover up the whole, it takes four of the 1/16th pieces to fill up a 1/4th strip etc. They will learn to see related fractions and what it means to simplify or reduce a fraction.
Cut out square inches or square feet. Use these papers to find the area of places or things in the home like a table or floor.
Use any or all of these tips and your children will become much more proficient at arithmetic and math skills.
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