You know how there is all this “new math” talk? …What if for the time being we made the “old math” the new math.
All through schooling my son’s biggest struggle was with mathematics. It started once we hit multiplication facts and then continued from there. However, he stuck to it through lots of tutors, teachers who took a special interest in him and lots of online tutorials. Khan Academy and YouTube are amazing. There was always a struggle about “Why am I doing this?” And “How is this even relevant?” However, when he was in 11th grade, he took an Applied Mathematics class and something started to stick. See, what he was learning was math that was applicable to things we do in real life! He learned how to measure a room for paint and carpeting. He learned how to create a budget and do online banking. He learned how to half and double a recipe. Credit cards, loans, investments, insurance and mortgages were all part of the curriculum. Imagine that!!
While I know many students at this time have been directed to a variety of ways to work on math facts and complicated problems, I encourage you to think about making math make sense for the day to day and making this part of a life skill.
Tip #10 Math as a life skill
Perhaps your kids are not quite at the investment or credit card age BUT how can you make mathematics relevant to everyday? What about allowances for doing certain jobs around the house. I know one mom who created a price list of what she was willing to pay for various tasks and projects that needed to be done. Of course, there were negotiations involved but kids can quickly learn the value of money and how to plan for how much they can make. Perhaps they can earn toward a preferred item they have been looking for. Maybe you can have them help you with the online grocery list and then add up how much they think it will cost. You may need to add in delivery fees and tips now! How about estimating how many meals need to be planned for given your family size. Will we need to increase the ingredients? Before my kids started college, we went to the grocery store and I gave them each $20. They had to buy items to feed themselves for a week. They had to have well balanced meals and at least one treat item. My daughter came in at around $18 and my son a few cents over $20. While we may not be able to go to the grocery store right now, you might be able to have them look at sales online, compare one grocery store to another and so on.
Other ideas might be using what your child is already interested in. There go those special interests again!! Perhaps one of their video games has an economy system. Do they need to trade for goods or do they need to save up enough currency to buy something? Are they creating a town, building or farm? How will they plan for that. How do they get their materials. Do they like sports facts? Maybe they can figure out stats for players and create fantasy teams given the numbers and probabilities? Get engaged in the conversation. Remember this can be another opportunity to learn something new about each other and build connections while still getting those skills in.
