Real-Life Lessons Add Up

By actively engaging children in meaningful math activities early on, they will not only see the relevance of mathematics in their daily lives, but they will also continue to enjoy the challenges that further study has to offer.

Educators stress the need to dispel the myth that math is difficult and, aside from arithmetic, irrelevant to everyday living.

In the past, parents have felt they couldn’t help their children because they would not understand the math their children were doing--a problem with “New Math.” But there are simple ways parents can encourage their children to use math in their daily activities. Among them:

* Let children help with simple measurements and calculations when preparing a recipe.

* Encourage children to keep a “running total” of their allowance when saving to make a special purchase.

* Read the sports stats together from the daily newspaper.

* Let children figure out how much change they’ll get back when making a store purchase.

* Ask kids to figure out how many pairs of socks, shirts, toys, games and so on they can pack when planning a vacation.