Before Bed, A Math Problem
In addition to reading bedtime stories to your kids, maybe you should offer them a “bedtime math” problem as well. Ashley Milne-Tyte of NPR reports:
MILNE-TYTE, When Laura Overdeck was growing up, numbers were part of her home life. Her mother was a keen baker, and Laura always helped measure ingredients. She learned about angles from her dad, who did carpentry in his spare time. Math became a favorite subject, and she went on to major in astrophysics. She knew she wanted her own kids to be math literate, too.
OVERDECK: And when we had our first child, when she was about two, we just started giving her a math problem every night, right alongside the bedtime story.
MILNE-TYTE: We’re not talking baby trigonometry. The problem was more of a story involving animals, vehicles or candy that let the toddler count either in her head or on her fingers. It caught on with the family.
OVERDECK: Our third child, when he turned two, started yelling that he wanted a math problem, because he saw his brother and sister doing them. And it made us realize, wow, we have a household where math is fun. It’s the sought-after thing at bedtime.
MILNE-TYTE: Friends got wind of the routine and started asking her to email math problems to them. In February, Overdeck launched a website where she posts daily puzzlers for children of different ages. She now has more than 5,000 people on her email list.” Read more here.
A great example of a fun way to “talk math” with kids. Have you found other ways to incorporate numbers into your family life?