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Helping your Child Learn Math
With activities for children aged 5 through 13
By Patsy F. Kanter
Foreword
"Why?"
This is the question we parents are always trying to
answer. It's good that children ask questions: that's the best
way to learn. All children have two wonderful resources for
learning--imagination and curiosity. As a parent, you can
awaken your children to the joy of learning by encouraging
their imagination and curiosity.
Helping Your Child Learn Math is one in a series of books
on different education topics intended to help you make the
most of your child's natural curiosity. Teaching and learning
are not mysteries that can only happen in school. They also
happen when parents and children do simple things together.
For instance, you and your child can: sort socks on
laundry day--sorting is a major function in math and science;
cook a meal together--cooking involves not only math and
science but good health as well; tell and read each other
stories--storytelling is the basis for reading and writing (and
a story about the past is also history); or play a game of
hopscotch together--playing physical games will help your child
learn to count and start on a road to lifelong fitness.
By doing things together, you will show that learning is
fun and important. You will be encouraging your child to study,
learn, and stay in school.
All of the books in this series tie in with the National
Education Goals set by the President and the Governors. The
goals state that, by the year 2000: every child will start
school ready to learn; at least 90 percent of all students will
graduate from high school; each American student will leave the
4th, 8th, and 12th grades demonstrating competence in core
subjects; U.S. students will be first in the world in math and
science achievement; every American adult will be literate,
will have the skills necessary to compete in a global economy,
and will be able to exercise the rights and responsibilities of
citizenship; and American schools will be liberated from drugs
and violence so they can focus on learning.
This book is a way for you to help meet these goals. It
will give you a short rundown on facts, but the biggest part of
the book is made up of simple, fun activities for you and your
child to do together. Your child may even beg you to do them.
At the end of the book is a list of resources, so you can
continue the fun.
As U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander has said:
The first teachers are the parents, both by example and
conversation. But don't think of it as teaching. Think of it as
fun.
So, let's get started. I invite you to find an activity in
this book and try it.
Diane Ravitch
Assistant Secretary and Counselor to the Secretary
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
The Basics
Important Things To Know
Math in the Home
Picture Puzzle
More or Less
Problem Solvers
Card Smarts
Fill It Up
Haft Full, Haft Empty
Name that Coin
Money Match
Money's Worth
In the News
Look It Up
Newspaper Search
Treasure Hunt
Family Portrait
Mathland: The Grocery Store
Get Ready
Scan It
Weighing In
Get into Shapes
Check Out
It's in the Bag
Put It Away
Math on the Go
Number Search
License Plates
Total It
How Long? How Far?
Guess If You Can
Appendices
Parents and the Schools
What Should I Expect from a Math Program?
Resources
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Most parents will agree that it is a wonderful experience
to cuddle up with their child and a good book. Few people will
say that about flash cards or pages of math problems. For that
reason, we have prepared this booklet to offer some math
activities that are meaningful as well as fun. You might want
to try doing some of them to help your child explore
relationships, solve problems, and see math in a positive
light. These activities use materials that are easy to find.
They have been planned so you and your child might see that
math is not just work we do at school but, rather, a part of
life.
It is important for-home and school to join hands. By
fostering a positive attitude about math at home, we can help
our children learn math at school.
It's Everywhere! It's Everywhere!
Math is everywhere and yet, we may not recognize it
because it doesn't look like the math we did in school. Math in
the world around us sometimes seems invisible. But math is
present in our world all the time--in the workplace, in our
homes, and in life in general.
You may be asking yourself, "How is math everywhere in my
life? I'm not an engineer or an accountant or a computer
expert!" Math is in your life from the time you wake until the
time you go to sleep. You are using math each time you set your
alarm, buy groceries, mix a baby's formula, keep score or time
at an athletic event, wallpaper a room, decide what type of
tennis shoe to buy, or wrap a present. Have you ever asked
yourself, "Did I get the correct change?" or "Do I have enough
gasoline to drive 20 miles?" or "Do I have enough juice to fill
all my children's thermoses for lunch?" or "Do I have enough
bread for the week?" Math is all this and much, much more.
How Do You Feel About Math?
How do you feel about math? Your feelings will have an
impact on how your children think about math and themselves as
mathematicians. Take a few minutes to answer these questions:
* Did you like math in school?
* Do you think anyone can learn math?
* Do you think of math as useful in everyday life?
* Do you believe that most jobs today require math skills?
If you answer "yes" to most of these ques
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