Math and Numbers

Your house does not need to be set up as a preschool to have math fun. You don’t need to be a math teacher either. For fun, try some math in the bath.

We don’t realize how much math we do in a day and in how many different places. One of those can be in the bath and the rest of the bathroom.

Parents remind kids to wash hands countless times a day. During one of those times when little hands are actually in the sink, count all the fingers to make sure there are ten. Then, when drying them, hold a couple of fingers in the towel and count again. Some fingers will be missing! Where are they? Look for the fingers and then ‘find’ them. Oh, thank goodness.

Speaking of towels, they are often different sizes. That’s math. The words for sizes depend on what things are being compared. A hand towel is small compared to a bath towel, but it’s bigger than a facecloth. Understanding big and small needs lots of experiences.

Kids can play and do math in the sink or in the bathtub. Give kids a few different size containers to fill with water and pour out. Kids figure out they need to use lots of little containers to fill a big container. As you watch a child in a tub, together you can count how many little fill-ups a big container takes.

One dad and his son like to write numbers and do simple math problems with bath crayons. They might draw four monsters and then wash one away; 4 take away 1 leaves 3. What a fun way to do math.

Check out the bath toys for different shapes. Are there any circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles? Kids can draw some shapes with bath crayons or soap.

These are only a few ways to do math in the bath. After a bath, count and make sure there are still 10 toes. Did any of them get washed away?

Kitchen + Kids = Math Fun

Kids need to experience math as part of each day and ordinary living. Here are some ways that kids can have math fun in the kitchen.

The most obvious way have math fun in the kitchen with kids is by cooking and baking together, but there is so much more. Young kids like to help, so when they are old enough, they can help set the table. Even if kids can not yet count accurately, they know that each person needs a plate. Kids can name each person and set a plate out for them. Or, if plates are breakable, maybe they can get the placemats and make sure each person has one.

This is called one-to-one matching and is crucial for developing number sense because one number means one thing. After the plates, there are the cups, and forks, and maybe napkins too.

As you work in the kitchen, kids can play with water at the sink. Let them have a few small containers, plastic spoons, scoops, and other tools. Spoons will only hold a little bit of water and even a small container will need many spoonfuls. That’s a math concept about volume. Kids will figure this out all by themselves if they have a chance to fill and empty over and over, with lots of different sizes of containers.

Dishes come in a variety of sizes. This can be pretty tricky. One child-size cup might be small, compared to an adult one, but could be big compared with a baby one. Three bowls could be almost the same size but who gets what bowl can be a big deal for kids. Food has different sizes too. Beside an apple, a strawberry is small but beside a blueberry it’s big.

A kitchen is a great place to look for different shapes. How many circles can your child find in the kitchen? As kids learn the shapes, they can look for squares, triangles, and rectangles. Being a shape detective can be exciting. When kids are old enough, play the game “I Spy”. Do you spy the blue triangle?

All of these incidental activities count. Oh, plus there’s lots to count in the kitchen too. Can you add to your child’s math fun in the kitchen?