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In Math for Parents

3 Ways to Turn Reading Time Into Math Time (Psst… You may be doing these already!)

Yesterday, Karma Wilson stopped by to describe how she uses math in her work as a children’s book author. She’s the author of such wonderful best sellers as Bear Snores On and Bear Says Thanks. And she got me thinking about the days when I used to read her (and other’s) books to my daughter (who is almost a teenager now!).

I guess because I like math and learned to incorporate numbers and math concepts into my everyday life pretty quickly, I naturally looked for the math hidden within each book I read to my daughter. But after having lots of conversations with other parents, I’m realizing that many don’t see the connection between literacy and numeracy. (Remember, numeracy is to math as literacy is to reading.) So I thought I’d share my ideas today in this special post.

It’s not actually very difficult to bring math into almost any picture book. But perhaps parents think they should shoot for the stars — asking kids to add, subtract, multiply or divide. Unless that’s part of the plot, I’m guessing such ideas come off a bit forced. Or they may just suck all of the fun out of sitting down and reading with your child. So try these suggestions on for size.

Count

In Bear Snores On (illustrated by Jane Chapman), a hibernating bear is visited by a variety of forest animals who host a mid-winter party in his cave. The easy thing to do here is to count the animals. How many are there by the middle of the book? How many are there by the end of the book? When you count, point at each animal and say the number out loud. As your child grows, ask him to point and count.

This process is a really easy way to reinforce something called one-to-one correspondence (or as we math geeks write, 1:1 correspondence). It’s so stupidly easy, that it’s hard to imagine kids aren’t just born knowing this. But the idea is that each animal in the book corresponds to a specific number. If you count the animals in the order that they appear in the book, the mouse will always be 1 and the raven will always be 7.

Addition

In Karma’s A Frog in the Bog (illustrated by Joan Rankin), the protagonist (yes, a frog in a bog) makes a very large meal of a variety of different critters in a variety of different numbers. There is one tick, two fleas, etc. This is the perfect time to prompt some addition. After the frog eats the tick and both fleas, how many critters are there in all? Count them in the picture, again by pointing to each one and saying the numbers out loud.

Tiny ones won’t necessarily learn to add simply by reading this book, but asking these kinds of questions can help lay the groundwork for an idea called counting up. In this process, when kids are adding two numbers, they start with one and count up using the second number. So 2 + 3 becomes 2, 3, 4, 5 — visually counting from 2 to 5 using fingers or something else concrete.

Proportions

Whopper Cake (illustrated by Will Hillenbrand) features a grandpa who is making a mighty big cake for Grandma’s birthday. From the title, we adults can predict that this cake is going to be huge, but your little one may not have those literary skills down pat. Guide him to that place by pointing out the sizes of things. The recipe calls for two cups of sugar, but Grandpa puts in 23 pounds of the sweet stuff. “Is that more or less sugar?” you can ask. Same with the eggs, which are increased from four to 84. Again, this may seem really basic, but young children (preschool and kindergarteners) are just learning about size comparisons. Until we teach them about bigger and smaller, they don’t have a clue.

Bonus: Have your child play with measurements and follow an algorithm (or a set of steps) by making a Whopper Cake from the recipe at the end of the book.

So, there you have it — a few ways to turn reading time into math time. These ideas don’t look so hard, do they? They should seem pretty darned simple. And they pay off, big time. Not only will your child be learning some basics about the foundation of numeracy and mathematics — he’ll likely pick up the message that math is everywhere and even a little bit of fun. Not even Bear should sleep through that!

What are ways you’ve incorporated math into your kids’ nightly reading? Share your ideas in the comments section.

Back to School: Back to Math

I remember the first week of my fifth grade year. I had a math worksheet for homework, and I was completely stumped.

“I don’t remember how to do this stuff, Mom.”

“What do you mean?” she said. “It’s just long division!”

Yep, in three blissful months of summer vacation, I had completely forgotten to long divide. My mother, a teacher herself, was shocked. Brain drain can sneak up on even the pros.

Being ready for school is much more than having a new backpack, plenty of No. 2 pencils and a healthy breakfast. Studies show that during the lazy months of summer, all kids suffer from “brain drain” or the loss of learning. In fact, students lose (on average) 2.6 months of mathematical competency in June, July and August. Wow!

I promise: I will not tell any parents that they should be teaching math over the summer. I’m not big on academically based summer camps (unless kids desperately need remediation or love these kinds of activities). I hate the idea of kids being subjected to flash cards or worksheets when they could be playing at the pool or reading a great book.

But I do believe — whole heartedly — that parents can help slow the loss of mathematic comprehension with some really simple and even fun activities.

And that’s what August is about here at Math for Grownups. We’ll focus on parenting, primarily, but I’m guessing that even non-parents can gain some additional understanding from some of the activities I’ll suggest. (No one should feel left out!) I’ll also hit on a variety of grades and ages — from toddlers to college students. And I hope to bring you some Math at Work Monday interviews that will inspire even the most reluctant math student.

But first, I want to know: What are your questions? What kinds of activities are you looking for? What topics are you having trouble helping your kids with? You ask ’em, and I’ll answer ’em — or at least point you in the right direction (perhaps to my posts at MSN.com’s Mom’s Homeroom).

So let’s start easing back into the school mindset — so September is not a shock to anyone’s system!

I want to hear from you! Ask your questions in the comments section or email me.

Guest Post: Grownups can learn new tricks!

Bon Crowder, another math evangelist

couple of weeks ago, a fellow freelance writer wrote me about her foray into graduate school. She needed to brush up on some math skills, and she wasn’t sure how. I have a feeling that her questions weren’t unique. Whether you need to learn a little extra to help your kid with his homework or you need to take a math class to further your education, learning math again (or for the first time) can be daunting.

Luckily, my friend and fellow math blogger, Bon Crowder offered to write a guest post on this very topic. I swear, Bon and I were separated at graduation or something, because we approach math education in very similar ways. Plus she’s fun. (See? Math folks aren’t always boring and difficult to understand!)

I wanted to title this “Being a Great Adult Learner.”

But that’s dumb. All adults are great learners. If we weren’t, we’d be stumbling around, bumping into doors, starving and naked. We know how to learn, and the proof is that we’re still alive.

And dressed.

The question is “What makes you learn?”

1) You need confidence.

Confidence involves two things: feeling worthy and knowing you have the ability.

When people feel they’re entitled to something, they’re more likely to feel confident in getting it. Hang around any Best Buy service desk and you’ll see this in action. People say all kinds of strange things when trying to return a broken product, and these things are said with a sense of entitlement. BY GOLLY they’re going to get their way!

So how do you gain worthiness and ability? You’re worthy of it because you already have it. And you’re able to do it because you already do.

You have it all. It’s just hidden behind a wall of words you or someone else (or both) has told you for years. Now’s the time to ignore everybody, even yourself.

Because here’s the gosh-honest truth: There is not a single thing within a mathematician that is not within you.

You’ve done math since you were a kid. Even before you were in school. You knew at a deep level that if there was one toy and there was another kid around, you’d better run like the dickens to get it. There’s no dividing that toy evenly between kids.

You balance your checkbook (or you would be in jail right now), you probably have some rough idea of your gas mileage, and you know that if you have 12 people coming over, you’re going to have to double or triple that recipe for shepherds pie. You know math. Now’s the time to admit it.

So say this every night before your prayers. If you don’t pray at night, say it twice:

I do math. Today I woke up on time because I calculated how long it would take to get dressed. I knew how much money to spend because balanced my checkbook. I figured out how much weight I needed to lose – and I used math to do it.

Modify this statement to fit your lifestyle and run with it. Every night.

2) You need the right environment.

Once you’ve tapped in to the realization that you’re inherently good at math, you need the right learning environment.

This includes location, timing and the other people involved. If you have to drive too far away after working all day and all you get is a lousy quarter-pounder-with-cheese, you’re going to be tired, grumpy and irritable. If your class is full of teenagers fresh out of high school and the professor is 400 years old and believes in death by PowerPoint, things are not going to go well.

How do you know the right environment?

Look at all the learning experiences you’ve had through the years. List out the good ones and the bad ones. And then dig deep – what made the good ones good? Why were the bad ones so detrimental?

Include timing, location, student body, temperature in the room and details of the instructor. List out the attitude of the instructor, his/her teaching style, voice intonations – even how he wrote on the board.

Pick out the deal-breakers and the nice-to-haves and write them on a special piece of paper. This is your official “Environment Requirement” page. Laminate it, put it in Evernote, tatoo it to your bottom – whatever you do to keep it close so you can refer to it often.

How do you make sure your Environment Requirements are honored?

Here’s where that sense of entitlement comes back into play. If your class has a deal-breaker environment element, do something about it. Think, “If this were a faulty remote control that I bought at Best Buy, how would I handle it?”

Ask the instructor to manage the loud students better. Ask building maintenance to change the temp of the room (or bring a sweater). Don’t sign up for a class during a time when you’ll be tired, hungry and irritable.

And if you can’t change the environment – leave. Drop the class. Get your money back.

If it were a crappy remote control, that’s what you’d do, right?

You’re dressed…

And fed. You learn all the time. And you do math.

Now go find a class that fits and have fun!

Bon Crowder publishes www.MathFour.com, a math education site for parents. But that’s not all! Bon has launched a really, really, really cool initiative called Count 10, Read 10. While parents are encouraged to read to their infants, toddlers and preschoolers, we’re rarely encouraged to inject a little bit of math into the day. Bon will show you how. Take a look at her blog for more information on developing math literacy (or numeracy). I’ll be writing about this more in the coming months.