Much has been said in the professional education arena about how our children are lagging in math and science compared to other developing countries. Even though I recently read a study that this is not entirely true, the subject is serious enough to keep it at the forefront of discussion.
Regardless of your opinion on this subject, I do not think it can be debated that we who are parents must make every effort to improve these skills within our children. In addition to assisting your children with their homework, look for opportunities to incorporate math skills in everyday situations. If you continually think about such opportunities you will find them plentiful.
Let me give you example. Last week I made brownies with my children. This was a prime opportunity to work on math skills. We were able to include the topics of units of measurement, addition, subtraction and best of all the principles of area. Since we did not have the exact size cooking pan as was represented on the directions on the box we had to calculate the square inches of the pan on the box versus the one we had. To further explain the concept we cut out a one-inch by one-inch square and placed it in each pan for perspective. My girls thought this was very cool.
Had I not consciously been looking for ways to incorporate math into circumstances I would never had done it. I had made brownies with my children before but it never occurred to me I could be working on anything other than cooking skills.
So continually think about how you can educate your children in math, science or any other skill during the course of daily activities.
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