According to a research carried
out by Oxford Learning, an online
program which caters to the learning needs of students of different age groups,
math skills equivalent to approximately 2.6 months of learning are lost by kids
over the summer vacation. What’s more, if kids and parents manage to put in
just 2-3 hours per week towards the subject, this learning loss can be
prevented to a considerable extent. Also, Duke University researchers claim
that math
skills decline more over the summer than academic skills in any other
subject.
Here are a couple of fun math
activities that can be used to brush up the kids’ math skills over the summer
so that they are able to retain a good part of whatever was taught to them over
the past academic year.
Math in the Kitchen
Ask your kid to count how many
cookies are there on the cookie tray once it comes freshly baked out of the
oven. A good way would be to count the number of rows and columns to calculate
the number of cookies, hence helping the kids recall and practice their
multiplication tables. Allow your kids to measure out the volume of water that
goes into the spaghetti recipe you’re cooking. Younger kids can be made to set
the table for dinner and count out the number of forks and knives required for
the people at the dining table. The number of pints in a gallon, the number of
ounces in a cup, kids can get to know these basics of math measurements like
the back of their hand if they help out in the kitchen on an everyday basis.
Math with Games
You can pick from an endless
variety of exciting math games to play with your kids and as a family. One of
the relatively recent additions to the market is what is known as printable
math games – what you need to do is simply download certain e-books from the
internet to your computer, print them out and voila! You have a great math game
on your hands which you’ve never played before. Alternatively, you could introduce
your child to online math games which
come in all shapes and sizes and for all ages. Playing card games or board
games like the tried-and-tested monopoly are other equally good options which allow
you to spend quality time together as a family as well as teach kids the
fundamentals of counting, money and otherwise.
Math with Videos
Ever heard of something known as
a multiplication rap? Well, it’s an easy and entertaining way to help your kids
sing along and learn their multiplication tables in style. Also, doodles are
not always just absent-minded scribbles and squiggles drawn on paper. Doodling
in math by connecting dots, making binary trees and practicing the Fibonacci series
are fun ways kids can practice certain mathematical concepts, be means of
watching certain educational videos on sites like YouTube.
Because the only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics, as a parent you just need to make sure some form of math is incorporated into your child’s play – one of the most effective ways to do away with the otherwise inevitable summer slide.
