24/09/2020
Maths Skills in Everyday Activities
Some children enjoy maths more than others and for those that don’t, it is a living nightmare anytime they have to formally sit down and ‘do maths’. As a parent and educator, I have found that bringing maths into everyday activities that your child enjoys helps them develop numeracy skills.
To help your child master maths concepts, it’s important to remember that sometimes children need to practise the same maths concept many times and in different ways before it starts to make sense.
With this in mind, finding different everyday activities that incorporates maths skills is a handy way to give your child an opportunity to learn or practise new maths concepts.
Here are some examples of everyday activities you can do with your primary school-age child:
• In the car – look at number plates and play a ‘game’ of making an agreed number say (20), you could use addition, subtraction or multiplication. The winner is the first person to see and use the agreed operation to make the agreed number. This helps with number bonds, times tables and number awareness
• In the Kitchen - Using the scale to measure different ingredients, gives children the notion of weight and units of measurements. Find a recipe that makes say six of something. Tell your child you would like to bake 12 units. Have a discussion of how you could possibly do that. This introduces the concept of doubling. Use this opportunity to encourage your child to find doubles of other numbers
• Estimate – how many fruits are in the basket? You could use anything in place of fruits. This is an extremely basic task, but it’s one that my students and children have engaged in for hours. I think the appeal is in the finding (how close was I?) Seize the opportunity by asking them, “how can we find out?” They choose the operation and together you explore different ways of finding the answer. This works really well both for lower and upper primary students
• Vocabulary – as you engage in everyday mathematical activities, where possible, authentically use mathematical vocabulary to familiarize your child with terminology relevant to the maths concept