Weekends are a great time to unwind and relax, well, as much as you can when the children are still running around on their festive high! As the celebrations fade and the gifts are sitting at the bottom of the toy box (already), getting the children up and about doing something a little more productive is a good break in the day.
We have compiled a handy little list of math-themed activities to keep everyone entertained (and educated!)
Math-Themed Scavenger Hunt
Create a list of math-related items for your children to find. For smaller children keep them around the house and have them collect things like clocks, watches, rulers, and measuring jugs. Older children could have fun out and about, encouraging them to take photos of specific buildings or objects – the town hall clock, a flood sign, markers on the side of bridges or rivers, for example.
As an extension of this, ask your children to take photos of other math-related items that aren’t on the list and see what sort of concepts they are familiar with.
DIY Math Problems
Encourage your children to create their own math quiz or word-math puzzles and get them to either test each other, or you. They could be within the theme of the weekend or going on vacation. Support them to draw diagrams and pictures to illustrate their examples.
Another fun-filled activity is to get them to plan a party. Have them write a list of all the games they will run, entertainment and food, and then itemize them and cost them out. This can be a good way to help children identify their value in real life.
An extension of this activity could be to plan the party with a budget and then go shopping, ensuring that they stay within the monetary constraints.
Family Games Night
Board games, card games, and even online games all involve a little bit of math. Whether it’s counting the number of spaces, adding up, or taking away, get the family together for a fun-filled games marathon.
Extend this by supporting your children to work out the mathematical problems independently, or even add some extra excitement with them challenging the adults!
Get Creative
Have you ever created a picture using only geometric shapes? Provide the tools to make holiday-themed art using angles, rulers, and cookie-cutter shapes.
To extend on this you could encourage children to make their art 3D and to work out the volume of their creation!
Creativity in the Kitchen
Cooking is full of mathematical concepts. It’s a great opportunity to practice measuring, weighing, and fractions. Bake some cookies or go hard with a full meal – you could even tie it into the budgeting and shopping list tasks.
Help your child to make double batches of your cookies by working out the exact amount of ingredients needed; or perhaps as an extra challenge, half a batch.
However you are spending the holidays, try and incorporate some mathematical concepts as a bit of an extra fun challenge.
