Math Hike

Take a bag with you as you and your family go on a fun hike.  You can hike on trails, at a park, or even in your back yard.  As you walk, pick up any fun treasures you might find like twigs, cool rocks, leaves, etc. At the end of your excursion dump out your spoil and have fun sorting and classifying what you found.  Here are a few ideas of ways you can sort things to get you started:

• color
• shape
• size
• type

For added educational benefit, you can count all the items you found.  You can also count how many things are blue, or how many things are round, etc.

Game Review – Guess Who

Guess Who has been around for years, and is a game I enjoyed playing as a child. I never imagined that, as I was playing, I was actually learning math. Guess who gives children a wonderful opportunity to recognize and explain how objects (or in this case people) can be classified. Classic questions like, “Does your person have red hair?” or “Is your person a man?” Make this a great game to get kids thinking like a mathematician, ready to sort anything that comes their way.

Laundry Time

Having your kindergartener help you with the laundry is a great way to get all sorts of wonderful math learning in. As you prepare the laundry to go into the wash machine, you can have your child help you sort the clothes by color. Later, when you’re ready to fold, he can help you sort the clothes by type (i.e. shirts, pants, etc.).  When you have the socks left, have your little one help you pair socks together.  Who knew that laundry time could be so educational?