Math. Did I just scare you? Math can be a fraught subject but it doesn’t have to be! I am going to load you with some helpful resources and ideas to spark math enjoyment in your life–and, more importantly, your child’s life. I’ll be scoping and posting this week on fun math.
Do you have many ages to engage in learning each day? Me, too. Sometimes that can be a challenge–some are at the very beginning stages of understanding and some may be moving from concrete to more abstract. What is a momma to do? Let me offer you some ideas inspired by some excellent living math picture books we are using to understand mathematical concepts related to self, measurement and BIG numbers.
How fascinating numbers can be–the very largest and the teeny-tiniest. Let your kids see your {new, building, fake it till you make it} enthusiasm start to blossom. It can go so far in ensuring they begin to see the fun and beauty of math. What are we going to do to invite some exploration into our math learning? We are going to start with good books and some easily accessible tools.
Gather:
Grab:
- a tape measure
- some sentence strips or long strips of construction paper
- markers
- spirit of adventure
A king decided what the official length of his kingdom would be –trace your feet (everyone–even mom!) and start measuring things. Do this before reading and see if your kids can figure out why a standard unit of measure was a necessity. Try to measure a few of the same things and meet up to share your discoveries. Read and relax…
Do you have a kid really into dinosaurs or animals? Or just science in general? This next grouping will be right of their alley. On with our exploration:
Gather:
Grab:
- those same markers, sentence strips and rulers or tape measures
- tape or stapler
Kids may like to plan out their skeletons; a sketch with the bones/parts of body to measure will give a good guide. Get busy creating accurate, actual sized paper skeletons of your and your loved ones. Older children can write actual measurements. This can also lend itself nicely to beginning to see the relationship between body parts and differences in sizes in your family. Bedtime math has a great ratio problem to try here. Valley Public Television also has a nice rundown of body ratios to begin exploration:
- The head and neck are approximately one-sixth the length of the body.
- The torso (shoulders to hip joint) is approximately two-sixths or one-third the length of the body.
- The legs are three-sixths or one-half the length of the body.
- The knee is half the distance from the hip to the heel.
- The upper arm is approximately equal to the length of the head.
- The lower arm is approximately equal to the length of the foot.
- The distance from fingertip to fingertip is approximately equal to the length of the entire body.
- The feet are approximately the length of the head.
How much do we love timelines as homeschoolers? This will combine our love of timelines and measurements and let our kids shine! I will scope and post on this tomorrow! Be sure to come back to see this cool idea.
Check out more math ideas over at iHomeschoolNetwork
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