12 May How to Have Fun With Math

Math is not Clark’s favorite subject.  It wasn’t mine either, so I get it. It’s always a bit of a struggle to stay focused.  Clark has a very creative brain and, like me, he needs a creative outlet.  Math is just the wrong side of the brain for that!  So in order for him to get engaged in his math lesson we’ve got to find ways incorporate creativity into the math. Simply put, we’ve got to learn how to have fun with math!

The other day, our math lesson involved money.  Clark had been asking me if we could play store, so I saw this as a great way to play and use our imaginations while at the same time learn about money, specifically, tens and ones.  I set up a little “grocery store” with the kids’ toy food. Then labeled each item with a post-it with different numerical amounts.  

Clark and Luci would come shopping and pick out whichever item they wanted to buy.  Clark then had to count out the correct amount of change to purchase the item.  This way, we got about 1/2 hour more out of math than we could have otherwise and it serves to incorporate learning into real life. 

Luci, as always, insists on full participation. So she shopped so she could “make dinner” and be a “cooker lady..”  I had her “count” out her money, just like Clark.  She counted her pennies to 14 and flashed me her biggest smile.

Out of curiosity, I also tried to see if she could do a little counting independently.  I made a few post-its with single integers on them and asked her to put the correct number of pennies on the post-it.  I think she understood to completely cover the post-it in pennies.  Haha! 

Either way, she was pretty proud of herself and was quite convinced that she had counted as many pennies as could possibly be counted!

This is one thing that I love so much about homeschooling! As parents, we get to tailor our children’s education so it suits them perfectly. We know our children best, we know how they learn, and we know how long they can focus on the subject at hand. Isn’t that the most incredible gift that we give our children?!