Fun with Math at Home - Essay Example

Here are some home activities suggested from Helping Your Child Learn Math (1999) which would surely harness the math skills of your children:“For Grades 1 – 3: Money’s Worth: Coin clues. Ask your child to gather some change in his or her hand without showing what it is. Start with amounts of 25 cents or less (for first-graders, you can start with pennies and nickels). Ask your child to tell you how much money and how many coins there are. Guess which coins are being held. For example, "I have 17 cents and 5 coins.

What coins do I have?" (3 nickels and 2 pennies).Value of Learning: Coin games help children to learn the value of coins. They also teach counting, addition, subtraction, and multiplication.For Grades K-2: Newspaper numbers. Help your child look for numbers 1 to 100 in the newspaper. Cut the numbers out and glue them in numerical order onto a large piece of paper. For children who cannot count to 100 or recognize numbers that large, only collect up to the number they do know. Have your child say the numbers to you and practice counting up to that number.

Value of Learning: newspaper activity helps children read and understand numbers and chartsGrades 3 – 5: Shop around. Have your child search for advertisements in the newspaper for an item they have been wanting, such as a piece of clothing or tennis shoes, in order to find the lowest price for the item. After your child finds the best buy, have him or she compares the best buy to the rest of the advertised prices. Are these store prices lower for everything or just items in demand?Value of Learning: This activity helps children see how much math is used in everyday life.

It also helps in the variety of ways in which math is used to tell a story, read a timetable or schedule, plans a shopping list, or study the weather” (Helping Your Child Learn Math, 1999)Wouldn’t it be great to start searching your home to engage in these activities and enhance the skills of your children? Who says math can’t be fun?