Helping Your Child Understand Our World Through Math

One of the questions classroom teachers and I are asked on a regular basis by parents is, "How can I support my child's math learning at home?"  It is so wonderful when parents want to support their child's growth and understanding of how mathematics is relevant outside of school!  Plus, there is a significant body of research that shows how beneficial it is when parents support the learning efforts started at school.

While some people may think of activities like practicing math facts with flashcards or purchasing math workbooks, I would like to offer some alternatives that are arguably more meaningful since these ideas allow students to make sense of our world through the lens of math.  Through counting, comparing, and composing or decomposing numbers and/or shapes, children learn how to understand mathematical relationships in authentic contexts.  Here are some of the ideas I recently provided for parents of kindergarteners, though these ideas can certainly be adapted for a variety of age levels to include more complex math concepts like fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, multiplication, and division.  

• Have your child make math stories from book illustrations when reading together by counting, comparing, or adding/subtracting.  

• Ask your child to count the number of coins or dollar bills in your wallet.  See if your child can skip count by 5s, 10s, or 20s if you have multiple of the same bills!

• Involve your child in cooking.  Measuring the number of Tbs, tsp, cups, etc. provides both measurement and counting practice.

• Ask your child questions related to comparisons of number and size using words like most, least, bigger, smaller, more, fewer.  For example, “Who has more broccoli on their dinner plate, you or your brother?”  Then see if your child can tell you how many more/less pieces each person has when compared to the other or how many pieces will be left if your child eats a certain number.

• Count the number of pages you read after you finish a book.  To take this to the next level, see if your child can find the total number of pages read if you read multiple books.

• When checking out at a store, ask your child to tell you how many people are in each line, and then determine the best line to stand in (and remember, it may not always be the line with the fewest people based on how many items each person purchases).

• When you are out shopping, use whole number costs to have your child tell you which item is the better deal/costs less.

• Build something together!  Using blocks or Legos are great opportunities for counting, measurement, and conversations about shapes and spatial awareness.

• If you are taking a family trip, use a map to show your child where you are going compared to where you live.  Compare the distances to other locations you have visited.  For example, “We live in Chicago, and here is New York City where we will go next week.  We visited your grandmother in Indianapolis last month, which is here.  Which city is farther away?”

• Try exercising together at home!  Have your child count the number of jumping jacks/sit-ups/squats, and you can make it more competitive by comparing the number each of you can do.

• Ask your child to help you put items into equal group items.  For example, if you are plating dinner, ask your child to put an equal number of carrot sticks on each plate.  Then have your child tell you how many total carrot sticks were used.

• Look for opportunities when you can ask your child how many are missing.  For example, how many eggs are missing from the carton or how many ice cubes have been taken from the tray.

• Patterns can be found in so many places, from clothing and jewelry to floor tiles and artwork.  Ask your child to look for patterns wherever you are, and then have your child explain why it is an example of a pattern and what the sequence of the pattern is.

• Do number or shape scavenger hunts around the house or out and about, and then use the opportunities to make mathematical comparisons between numbers or shapes.
• Whenever you play a game with moving a piece on a game board, have your child count the number of spaces to be moved for each player.  If scoring is involved, ask your child to use tally marks or addition/subtraction to be the game's official scorekeeper.

The websites Math Before Bed and Bedtime Math also provide prompts for families to use to facilitate math conversations at home, and Bedtime Math has developed two free apps as well, MiniMath (ages 3 - 5) and Bedtime Math (ages 3 - 9).  Games are another great way to engage the whole family in math-related activities and conversation, so stay tuned for a future blog post on that!  What are additional ideas you give to parents to help support their child's math development at home?