Real-Life Math Practice Ideas for Summer
Keeping your kids’ math skills sharp through the summer may not sound too fun, but it doesn’t have to be as complicated or boring as you might think! Students lose significant momentum in areas like math and reading when they’re not “exercising” these skills during the break, and summer is a great opportunity to take math practice out of the classroom and tie it in with real life.
Here Are Some No-Worksheet Math Practice Ideas to Try This Summer:
While Running Errands or Out and About:
- Stick to a budget and calculate totals in your head as you go through the store (don’t forget about taxes!) As you’re going through the grocery store, tell your child how much you have to spend for the week and have them help stick to that budget based on the things you need to get. Alternatively, you can have them keep a mental tally running and see how close they are to the final amount at the end!
- Calculate tips at a restaurant (no cheating!) Many restaurants make this easy by providing recommended tip amounts, but give your child an obscure percentage (like 22.5%) and have them calculate the tip.
- Figure out which items are the best value based on total cost and number of pounds, ounces, or items. This is something we often do anyway, so hand this job off to your kids when you’re running errands! It’s a great way to practice division as well as building familiarity with different measurements.
- Estimate times, distances, or amounts. Estimating and dealing with measurements and numbers are key areas of math that are pretty easy to practice outside of school. For example, if you’re driving 10 miles to the park, have your child estimate how long it will take. If you’re dividing up the last bag of chips, have them help estimate how much each person should get. These may seem like easy tasks, but it’s a great way to keep your child’s brain engaged!
- Carry cash and count coins, calculate change, etc. The move away from using bills and coins may make life more convenient, but paying in cash is a great way to practice math skills including money, subtraction, addition, comparison, and more. This may take some intentional effort, but paying with cash occasionally this summer is a great way to let your child practice!
Math Practice Ideas While Traveling:
- Practice elapsed time, estimating distances, and figuring out for themselves “how much longer until we get there.” We all know they’re going to ask, so give them the information they need to figure it out for themselves! If you have 200 miles to go and the average speed you’re traveling is 70mph, have them estimate how long it will take and what time you’ll arrive. It’s also a good time to pull out paper maps and have them practice measuring distances and estimating how long it will be for themselves!
- Calculate miles per gallon every time you stop to fill up. This is a quick math problem that you can do with your kids at the pump, but it’s a helpful skill to have (and an easy way to use some math operations in real life!)
- Do speed math: add up all the numbers you see on license plates as fast as you can. Have your kids quickly remember all the numbers on the license plates of vehicles you pass and keep a running total in their head. This is a great test of processing speed and working memory as well as math facts! You can even make a competition out of it to see who can be the first to get to 100, or use multiple operations (+,-,x,÷) to reach a specific number.
While at Home:
- Spend time in the kitchen using recipes. Cooking is a great way to practice math concepts like measurement, elapsed time, and basic operations. Halve or double a recipe for extra practice with fractions!
- Math board games. Games are one of our favorite ways to practice learning skills in ways that are fun and engaging. Here are a few resources to give you a place to start:
- Compare, estimate, or count. This is a great activity to build number and quantity awareness for young kids. Ask questions about which container of chips has more/less, which container would best hold our picnic lunch, how many popsicles do you think are left, etc. to get them thinking numerically.
- Go on a shape or number hunt. This is another great tool for early learners in your home. Give them a shape or number scavenger hunt where they need to find as many triangles, squares, parallelograms, things with 5 pieces, etc. as they can.
Math Skills Training
Do you feel like you have one of those kids for whom math is just a struggle? If math concepts just don’t come naturally to them or they consistently struggle during the school year, summer is a great time to take a deeper dive into why this may be happening. When certain cognitive skills are weak, math concepts are going to be so much harder to grasp. We can partner with you to take a deeper look at your child’s brain’s cognitive profile to find where these weak points are and how you can unlock easier learning for life!
