CL Parent Workshop - Today's Math

Today’s Math:

Developing Your Child’s Problem Solving Skills

Participant Packet

How Do You Use Math Each Day? Math Opportunities Are Everywhere! At the grocery store… – We need 5 cans of soup, I have 3, how many more do we need? – The original price of the pasta was $2.89, now it’s $1.99. How much are we saving? At the mall… – The jeans cost $20 and we have a 10% coupon. How much are we paying for the jeans after the discount? In the kitchen… – This recipe makes a dozen cookies and we want to make 24. What will we have to do with each of the ingredients? In the car… – We drove 50 miles an hour and the trip took us 2 hours. How many miles did we drive?

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Keep It Simple

• Choose an activity you are mathematically comfortable with.

• Keep your anxiety out of it.

• Don’t worry about making mistakes – they’re part of learning.

• Keep it fun.

Math Anxiety To help your children overcome math anxiety (or avoid developing it) there are many things you can do…

How’s my child doing?

• Encourage them and let them know you believe they can be successful at math.

• Check on how they’re doing – talk to their teachers if you think there’s a problem.

• Talk to them about the importance of math in today’s world.

• Review your child’s test scores.

• Discuss any fears they may have about math – try to find out what’s causing it and design fun math activities that can build confidence.

• Read your child’s math journal.

Questions You don’t always have to have the answers. You can also help your child by asking questions like…

• What do you think would happen if…?

• How else can you solve that?

• Can you draw a picture to show your thinking?

• Tell me how you figured it out?

• Speak with your child’s teacher. • Be involved and stay involved.

ACTIVITY:

How might these types of questions help children become more confident about their ability to do math, and more engaged problem solvers?

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Math anxiety is a learned emotional response to one or more of the following: participating in a math class, listening to a lecture…working through a math problem, discussing mathematics.

- Sarah Rossnan, 2006 3

Everyday Activities At the supermarket Grades 3-8 Get a supermarket circular and give them a budget to work with (the older the child the more money you can give them to spend). What items would they get? What would they end up spending? How much money would they have left? Grades K-2 Use the circular to discuss the shapes of different food items — stick to circles, squares and rectangles. Have another category for items that don’t fit into those categories. See if your child knows the name of the shape. Shopping with a catalog Grades 5-8 Get a mail order catalog with a percentage off coupon. Ask your children to calculate the savings on specific items they’d like to buy. Grades K-4 Talk about which price is more, which is less. Find two of the same items with different prices, like a t-shirt and discuss which price is more and by how much. Use real money to illustrate the price of the items. Cooking Grades 5-8 Get a recipe and ask your children to half it or double it. Or, if the recipe says “4 servings” ask them how much of each ingredient would they need if they needed to serve 6 people and each person needed to have two servings. Grades 3-4 Using measuring cups, have children find out how many half cups equal a whole cup or how many third cups equal a whole cup, etc. Grades K-2 Have children help you fill measuring cups and spoons. Discuss which measurement is more. Driving Grades 4-8 Pick a destination with a set amount of mileage and determine how long it would take to get there if traveling 50 mph. Grades K-3 Choose two destinations and discuss which is closer to home. If it takes 10 minutes to get to the gas station and 15 minutes to get to the super market, which one is closer? Adapted from US Department of Education. Helping your child learn math. 1992

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