Fun Ways to Teach Math to Your Kids
Have you ever watched “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” with Jeff Foxworthy? Sometimes I get embarrassed when I can’t answer the 3rd grade math questions and my son can. Math can be a tricky subject for some children to grasp. I found that by reinforcing math at home, kids pick it up quicker, can understand it easier and even enjoy it. Here are my favorite 5 ways to teach math at home:
Recipes: Have you child read you the recipes, measure out the ingredients and follow along. For example, if you need 1/4 cup of sugar and you only have a 1/2 cup measuring cup, can your child figure out that 1/4 is half of 1/2? You can talk about fractions, greater than and less than and of course, temperature when you’re setting the oven.
Flash cards: Some children learn better by repetition. Make flash cards for multiplication. Even better, have your child make them with their favorite stickers, colors, characters, etc. Make sure to put them in random order. Give you child hints on how your learned your multiplication tables.
Fun word problems: My husband and I love to make up silly word problems for my son to solve. “If Adam had 3 Nintendo games and you have 17, how many more Nintendo games does Adam have to convince his parents to buy for him so you both have the same amount?” “If you had 7 bananas and 3 friends to share them with, how many bananas would each friend get?”
Board Games: Monopoly is one of the best games to teach your child about money. Let them be the banker and show them how to count back change. So many kids these days can’t count change back if you give them $11 for a $6 purchase.
Working around the house: Helping Dad or Mom measure and cut when doing projects around the house teaches them about distance, fractions and more 3rd grade math.
For more Educational Resources, go to FREE: Federal Resources for Educational Excellence. You may even find it possible to become smarter than a 3rd grader.
Please leave me a comment telling me how you teach your children math.
