How to Incorporate Math into Your Daily Routine
At Kumon, you can expect that we see a whole lot of kids each and every day – and where the kids go, parents will follow! Naturally, our parents understand the value math. So we took it upon ourselves to ask them how they incorporate math into their children’s daily routine. Let’s dive in!
Learn Math with Food
Food! Now that we’ve got your attention, one of the biggest tips our parents shared with us was how they use food as an opportunity for math learning. Teach math concepts like fractions with everyday items like slices of pizza or pie. And you can teach concepts like subtraction and addition as you add pieces of food to their plates and as they eat them. “You had 4 carrots and you ate 2, how many do you have now?” This is a great way to make learning math fun.
Paying the Bills with Math
Money makes the world go round – and it might just be one of the most practical every day examples of math in our day to day lives. When it’s time to pay the bill at a restaurant, pay in cash and have your little mathematicians calculate the change. If your child is old enough (and the line-up at the store isn’t too long) you can even ask them to try to figure out how much cash they need to pay the bill! They’ll be counting exact change in no time.
Bath Time – Math Time
Bath time just got a whole lot more fun. At the end of every bath, draining the tub can become a full-on math guessing game! Before you pull the plug, have your child guess how many seconds it will take for the water to drain out. Then, count together and see who wins!
Falling Asleep with Math on the Brain
Creating math moments doesn’t have to be an overt and all-consuming thing. Sometimes a subtle approach can work wonders. When reading at bedtime, ask your child how many pages there are in their book or how many characters they can see on each page. This kind of passive math learning approach can get kids thinking about numbers without them even knowing it!
How do you make math fun for your children? Let us know in the comments section below!
Kumon can also help you understand where your child stands academically, figure out their learning priorities and establish the routine needed to succeed. Schedule a parent orientation session to find out more.