The best idea I’ve heard in a long time comes courtesy of Lisa Guernsey of Early Ed Watch (where is Sara Mead, anyway?) who points out that every parent gets the idea that bedtime is book time, but what about math? She’s encouraging parents “to build math moments into the morning routine, just as book reading is part of the bedtime drill.”
Rummage through the sock drawer with your 4 year old, encouraging her to find a matching pair. Voila. You’ve covered one math concept already. Go to the freezer and pull out the frozen waffles for your 6-year-old. “You want one-and-a-half? How about three halfs instead?” Wink, wink, another concept down the hatch. Ask your 8-year-old to pour the juice so that the glasses are 75 percent full. Aha. A good opening for a chat about fractions.
Guernsey points out that we’ve had plenty of research and public service campaigns encouraging parents to read to their children, yet math skills trump reading skills as one of the best predictors of school success. “Imagine what might happen with a similar campaign that suggests ways for parents to do math in the morning with their children,” she urges. ”Look for numbers on cereal boxes. Talk about the score of last night’s ball game. Point out patterns on their hats and mittens as you dress them for school.”
What a simple, brilliant idea. Pass it on.
Reading to your kids and playing math games with them should not be a novel concept.
It reminds me of the Chris Rock joke where he berates parents for claiming they are so great because they read to their kids. Chris says you don’t get a medal for doing what you’re supposed to do! I agree.
All parents are charged with reading to their kids and teaching them basic math skills.
Our country’s inability to see parents as educators–the primary educators–of their children speaks volumes about our priorities as a nation.
Teachers are not employed to make up for deficits in parenting. Though they apparently have to.
Corporate memory being what it is, we forget that parents read to their kids because that’s about all they were able to do. Reading was the part of schooling that didn’t get learned by everyday activities. Counting your chickens and learning the science of soil and seasons came with the territory … reading was not so common.
Fifty years ago the average parent could help with the math work. When we introduced the “modern” crap, the kids were teaching the parents. Good reason to stick with the reading.
Now would be an excellent time to get back to teaching kids life skills: reading, counting, reasoning, etc.