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You Can Help Your Child with Math: Ten Fun and Easy Tips.1997-00-0017p.; Colors may not photograph well.EDINFO Press, P.O. Box 5247, Bloomington, IN 47407; Tel:800-925-7853 (Toll Free).Guides General (050)MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.*Arithmetic; Computation; Elementary Education; *ElementarySchool Mathematics; *Mathematics Activities; *MathematicsEducation; *Parent Participation; *Parents as Teachers;Relevance (Education)

This booklet presents 10 easy fun tips for parents to helptheir children build self-confidence by making them aware of the mathematicsall around. These 10 activities were developed to help children master basicmath skills, see the relationship between math and everyday activities, andschool learning. (ASK)

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A tte r to arentsDear Parent,

Though often feared by students, math is oneof our most frequently used school subjects.We solve math problems every day when we dosuch routine things as set the alarm to get upat a specified time, measure coffee for breakfast,and leave for the bus with enough time to reachthe bus stop. So don't feel that math is toodifficult for you or your child. You do it all thetime!

At home, you can help your child build self-confidence by making him or her aware of themath all around us. Here are three basic thingsthat you can do:

Help your child have a good attitudetoward math.Let your child know he or she can be suc-cessful in mathematics. Solving mathproblems is not always easy. But you canencourage your child to be persistent andto view math problems as puzzles orgames that are fun to solve.

Help your child practice the basicskillsaddition,Nsubtraction,

multiplication, division, fractions extddecimalsso that your child canremember them and use themcorrectly.As with other skills, such as playing thepiano or batting a ball, math skills areimproved with practice. Be sure your childcompletes school work, and find oppor-tunities for him or her to use math skillsoutside of school.

Help your child understand the stepsinvolved in solving a math problem.Often the steps in a problem must beaccomplished in a particular order. Forexample, if you want to figure out howmany square feet of carpet are needed tocover the floor of a room, you must firstmeasure two adjoining sides, thenmultiply those numbers to get the squarefootage. Help your child visualize aproblem and plan it step by step.

The ten fun and easy activities that followwill help your child master basic math skills,see the relation between everyday mathactivities and school learning, and have fun atthe same time. Simpler ideas are presentedfirst, followed by more advanced activities touse as children get older.

ShapesTo help your young child learn shapes,draw or use yarn to form a circle, square,or triangle. Show it to your child, andintroduce the name of the shape. Sendyour child on a search for items in thehouse that have that same shape. Ask herto make the shape with her hands or withher whole body too.

ountingGive your child concrete objects to useas he learns to count. You don't need tospend a lot of moneychildren's toyssuch as marbles, match box cars, or col-lections of seashells or baseball cardswork fine. Snacks such as popcorn,raisins, M&Ms, cereal, grapes, carrotsticks, and marshmallows also make greatcounting tools. Kids can eat them after-ward as a reward!

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StillCounting!Turn simple jumping, clapping, andhopping activities into counting activities.Encourage your child to count higher andhigher by showing interest in her "record"numbers, such as how many times shecan bounce on a pogo stick, jump a rope,or get a hula hoop to go around withoutstopping.

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In FlashPractice simple math facts, such asaddition, subtraction, multiplication ordivision with homemade flash cards. Saveold holiday, birthday, and other greetingcards. Your child will enjoy cutting up thecolorful cards to make her own set offlash cards. An old deck of playing cardsworks well too.

Piggy Rankiet your child count the money in the

family piggy bank, or get her one of herown. Ask her to sort the change by typeof coin and then to count how muchmoney is in each pile. Show or remindher that she can do this by counting intwos, fives, and tens. Then ask her toadd up the totals from all the piles to getthe grand total. You can give her extrapractice by letting her roll up the changein coin rolls.

ow e eCooking!

et your child discover how useful mathcan be by helping out in the kitchen.Allow your child to help you measureingredients for recipes. Show him thatusing four one-quarter cups of flour isthe same as using one cup. Teach himhow to set the timer on the stove, andask him to calculate what time it will be45 minutes from now when the cake isdone.

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elp your child learn to understand timeand distance by asking him how long itwould take for him to walk to a specifiedlocation. Then take the walk with him anddetermine if his predictions were correct.

SportsMath

Review word problems with your childby using scores in the newspaper. Forexample, ask him to figure out thenumber of losses a team had if theyplayed 30 games and had 12 wins. Or askhim to calculate how many games a teamplayed if they had 20 wins and 7 losses.Engage older children in more compli-cated calculations, such as percentagesand averages.

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Let's GoShopping!lay a shopping game. First have yourchild select 10 items from a catalog. Thenhave her add the prices to figure out thetotal cost of the items. Next have herpretend she will receive a certain weeklyallowance. Help her figure out how longit would take to earn enough money tobuy the items she selected.

HomeProject

Are you building an addition on yourhouse, putting up shelves, painting aroom, or building a piece of furniture?Show your child the scale plans of theaddition and explain the ratio used tomake the drawing, allow her to measurethe boards for shelves, help her calculatehow much paint you will need to cover thewalls of the room, or let her help youmeas,ure the legs for the table you arebuilding.

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Conc tisionMost important of all, make the time youshare with your child enjoyable for both of you.This will give your child positive feelings towardmath and confidence that he or she can succeed.

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r.-) 1997 ED1NFO PressP.G. Box 5247 BloomIngton, IN 47407j-800-925- 7853

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