Recently, someone posed a question in the forums about how to instill a love of math in your child. I have to start out by saying that I’m not sure every kid will love math. I think some families have a certain affection for numbers while others don’t. In my own children what I hope they love is how to learn. On the other hand, I believe the poster was looking for specific resources and ideas that make learning math fun. Here are some of my favorites ideas that win the vote of approval from my own children:
Math Manipulatives
One of the things I love about Saxon math is all the manipulatives. It is certainly not the only curriculum out there though, and it’s definitely not the only set of manipulatives either. However, it is the cheapest “bundled” set I’ve found. If you want to pick them up separately, check out a catalog like Rainbow Resource .
Cuisenaire Rods
Although this could technically go underneath the set of aforementioned manipulative, Cuisenaire Rods are unique in how they teach math and are definitely worth a try if you’re not committed to a particular curriculum. Even if you are committed, they’re still fun!
Math in the Kitchen
Want your kids to love fractions? Head to the kitchen to bake some bread, cookies or even dinner. When I was teaching my oldest daughter fractions, I would take a recipe and re-write the ingredients list depending on the concept I was trying to teach. For example, if I wanted to teach the idea of adding fractions I might write that a recipe called for 1/4 plus 1/4 cups of sugar or so forth.
Shopping Math
I wrote during Christmas time about some of the ways that we use our annual Christmas shopping trip to encourage math skills. Things like percentages, decimals, and money are just some of the skills we work on. You can take your kids to the grocery store, or have them look at the weekly circular. The more they see how they need to know some math, the more likely they are to get into it.
Budgeting Math
While this could technically go with the shopping, I felt it was worth it’s own little space on this blog. A few years ago, our fashion conscious daughter asked for an $80 jacket. That might not seem to extravagant to some people. . .but she was five. . .and there was NO WAY we were going to pay that much money for a jacket that she’d likely wear once or twice.
So we gave her a certain amount of money for clothes shopping, helped her make a list of things she would need and let her discover on her own that she could not afford the $80 jacket if she wanted to have other things. We have since helped our kids develop budgets for birthday parties and even vacations.
Measuring, Measuring, Measuring
Measure everything–go ahead. Why my kids are fascinated with the tape measure I’ll never know. But both of my older kids have a good understanding of the metric system (as well as our own system of measurement), and can tell you the square footage of each room. Not so practical. . .but they do enjoy it. While we own a ruler of course, we buy the tape measures that are flexible from a fabric store. They are generally about $1.
Some of My Favorite Math Curriculums, Games and Books
The above ideas are all things that you can do in your everyday lives. While it’s not rocket science, and it may not lead to your child wanting to major in mathematics, it will help ensure that they at least see the need for studying math and having some basic concepts down pat. Here is a list of some of my absolute favorite resources.