5 Activities to Encourage a Love of Math in Your Children
by Nicole Dean

Description: Fun family activities and games to help your children learn math.

Oftentimes parents invest a lot of money in thick workbooks to teach their kids math. Some children are open to workbooks. Others are not. If your child is bored by workbooks, don't fret. There are plenty of other ways to teach math – and they’re fun!

Board Games

Dust off your Monopoly game and your game of Life. Counting money is great practice for learning math. If your child is old enough, ask her be the banker.

Cooking

Cooking is a wonderful way to teach addition, multiplication, division and fractions. (Even the adding of fractions which is, of course, quite advanced.) Whether your child is 3 or 13, you can teach math in a fun way with recipes. If your child chooses the recipes and writes the grocery lists, she will get practice with her reading, spelling and writing skills, too.

Have a Garage Sale

Garage Sales or yard sales are a natural way to practice math. Your child can help by writing the prices on items, by collecting money and dispensing change. No matter how you involve your child, she will be practicing math, gaining confidence, and some good business and communication skills as well.

Math Uno

Remember the game of UNO that you played as a kid? Have you ever involved math when playing the game? Instead of playing one matching color or number on the card that is face up, instead play two or more number cards that add up to that number.

For older kids, you can encourage subtraction, multiplication and division as well.

Start a Family Business

Of course one of the best ways to practice math is by running a business. Either help your child start a small business or consider a family business. Whether it’s a baby-sitting business or a lemonade stand, your child’s brain will be challenged.

If you already own a family business, then, by all means, allow your child to help.

These are just a few ways you can practice math with your child – and help him to gain more confidence in his math skills.

Nicole Dean invites you to http://www.ShowKidstheFun.com -- a free website filled with activities to make memories with your children and http://www.ShowKidstheMoney.com -- a fun and informative resource for moms who want to help their kids make money.

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