Teach Your Child Math This Summer

Summer vacation is a big block of time. If you're child is falling behind in math, or if you just want to make sure he maintains what he's learned through the year, these tips will help your child stay up on math, without feeling like he's stuck in summer school.

There are so many moments in an average day that lend themselves to learning about math. A simple trip to the grocery store, a ball game, or even hopscotch can help your child build his math skills. With the awareness of these teaching moments, you can maximize them, and even build upon them throughout the summer.

Wear a Watch:

No matter what your child's age, using a watch instantly gives him opportunities to practice adding, subtracting and doing basic computation. Let him wear a watch, and when something exciting is coming up, have him give you a countdown of how much time is left until it happens. Or using a stopwatch, have races and write down who has the best time. For older children, have the winner be determined by an average score.

Sports: For sports buffs, there are multiple ways to encourage learning. Make up a scoreboard of favorite teams, and compare stats. Talk about how batting averages are calculated, and try to calculate some of your own.

Cooking: Making pancakes on a Sunday morning can lead to learning about measurements, fractions, and multiplication. Start with a basic recipe, and then double or triple it, and allow your child to figure out how much of each ingredient is needed. For younger children, simply learning about basic measurements, such as teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, etc. is very helpful. For older children, you can teach fractions by finding out how much milk is needed if the recipe calls for ¼ cup and you need to triple the recipe.

Grocery shopping: The grocery store offers opportunities for learning math for all ages. Little ones can count the apples as you put them in a bag, practice weighing produce on the scale, and identify the aisle numbers on each aisle. Older children can calculate the cost of a single snack bar if they are listed as four for 1.00, or help keep a running tally of the entire grocery order. A fun way to let your kids help with shopping and learn about budgets is to give them their own list of favorite foods, along with a spending budget. Some grocery stores even offer mini shopping carts for kids to use. Give your child a list, a portion of the grocery money (maybe 10 or 20 dollars) and a list of foods. Make sure these are foods your child likes so they are more motivated to shop. Help your child learn to compare prices on products, use coupons, and take advantage of sales. As an additional incentive to make smart choices, you could allow your child to pocket the savings to add to their piggy bank.

Fun and Games:

Board games and puzzles are a great way to sneak in some math learning over the summer. Have a family games night and take turns picking the games. Jigsaw puzzles help with special relations and developing parts of the brain used for math. Building toys such as legos, magnetix and blocks do the same. Make sure your child has time for activities like these. Online math games offer some great practice for a rainy day, and they can be fun! Try the free games at http://www.aplusmath.com/Games/index.html for starters.

Most of all, have fun! That's what summertime is for. Sometimes the unstructured, natural opportunities provide much more benefit. Make it interesting and fun, and it will be a piece of cake!