52 Ways to help your child

Mathematics

14. Give your child practical experience using mathematics at home. Mention the size of containers, such as pints of cream and half gallons of milk. Encourage help when you bake, lay carpet or tile, or seed or fertilize the lawn. Allow your child to measure ingredients, areas or quantities of material. Use the metric system of measurement to increase the child's knowledge of and proficiency in the use of the metric system.
15. Before a shopping trip, have your child read newspaper ads and price the cost of items to be purchased. Encourage comparison of prices and quantities marked on containers to determine the best buys. Allow the child to purchase an item and figure out the change to be received. Other ways to help children apply their growing knowledge of mathematics to practical situations are: letting them double check the addition on grocery tapes, manage an allowance, read thermometers, barometers or even stop watches. Let them calculate age, weight, height and dimensions, or figure gas purchases and mileage, tolls and other trip expenses. Encourage the use of the metric system.
16. Bingo, dominoes, toy telephones, card games, board games, calendars and clocks with large numbers all can help familiarize your child with the world of numbers.
17. Put your preschool child's counting ability to work. In preparation for meals, let the child count out forks for the table, dinner napkins, pieces of cake, or any other quantity.
18. If your child is having difficulty with multiplication tables, buy or make flash cards and use them on a regular basis. Children will enjoy giving answers they know and will earn more complex problems through drill. Let your child explain the math papers brought home from school, and take time to help with correction and understanding of mistakes.
19. Above all, ask and listen to your child's daily experiences. Communication is the key to successful learning.