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player ready...Make math part of everyday life, and your 3- to 12-year-old will have much happier sailing through these years, says Rob Eastaway, co-author with Mike Askew of “Old Dogs, New Math: Homework Help for Puzzled Parents” (The Experiment, $15.95).
Math can be seen by some parents as little more than arithmetic, when it is actually a creative and imaginative subject, says Eastaway, a London-based parent of three.
Eastaway, author of six books on math, frequently lectures educators on the subject. With mom and dad, or grandparents, aunts or uncles, children can learn real math that is enjoyable, he says.
“Bring humor into math, and do it together. Do it out of the house,” Eastaway says. “It’s not homework. Sneak math casually into everyday life.”
How he does it: When walking along the street with his 5-year-old, they read house numbers. If the first number ends in 2, the child might expect the next to end in 3. But no! It’s 4. And the next is 6. “Then, what’s on the other side of the street? He’s beginning to predict, he’s spotting patterns, we’re being in wonder together.”
Let’s count a few more opportunities:
Breakfast is a great opportunity for math. Have some props in place, such as analog and digital clocks, and a thermometer with indoor and outdoor temperatures. English muffins in a plastic package form a grid to aid in visual multiplication. Analog clocks show angles, with a quarter past the hour forming 90 degrees, and half past showing 180.
Use a clock to reinforce multiplication by five. When the big hand points to 5, that’s 25 minutes past the hour, which is five times five. When it points to 4, that’s 20 minutes past the hour, or four times five.
Practice transferring the time from an analog clock to a digital one.
Take your child shopping, and use cash. “It’s great going into stores where you hand over $10 and get change. Ask your child, ‘How much change will we get? Can we work it out?’ Or say, ‘We’ve chosen these items; have we got enough money to purchase them?’
“Ask your child the question, and have him come to the rescue. If he can’t, help him out. Don’t give him all the answers, but don’t put him under pressure either.”
Uncover the fun in math. Play “I Spy” by extending it to rectangles and triangles for a young child, and cylinders or pyramids for an older one. Note the hexagons and pentagons on a soccer ball. Play the board game Chutes and Ladders, moving twice as many spaces as the dice show, to illustrate doubling. “If a parent’s in a hurry, the game’s over twice as fast!”
As parents learn to spot how to incorporate math into everyday activities, he says, they’ll also learn how to make the discoveries entertaining.
“Children love anything that looks like magic,” Eastaway says. “Math is full of magic and mind-reading tricks. Kids love discovering it for themselves. It’s the games, the investigations, asking ‘Why does it work?’ It’s anything with a puzzle and a surprise.”
Find a lot of information, games and resources related to math at Figurethis.org, a website for families. The site has great credentials, including being co-sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Figuring it out
Pop quiz!
Q: What are the largest and smallest oceans in the world?
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A: The Pacific is the largest, and the Arctic Ocean is the smallest.
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration