How much water is in the pool?! Practical ideas to keep math alive for your child this summer from the JMS Math Department! Flash Cards. Put the cards that they get right really fast in one pile (the done pile) and the ones that they hesitate on or get wrong in the other pile(the try again pile). Do the try again pile over and over until they are all done. Do this with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. If you really want to see how good they are, shuffle all of them together and see how they do. Quiz their multiplication and division facts in the car. Driving up north? What’s 6 times 8? What’s 49 divided by 7? What’s the square root of 144? For your birthday, I give you 3 times your age plus $10, how much would you get when you turn 14? How much have I given you on all of your birthdays so far? They may need paper and pencil for that last one. You may need a long red light to figure it out yourself. Go to an educational supply store. Hammett’s in the Northcourt Shopping Center near Northtown is a good example. Purchase a workbook. Target has some materials also, just not as much as a selection. Have a specific day and amount of time that is math time. Keep the math time short (30 minutes or less). If you want to do more, have math time more than once a week. Quiz their estimation skills at the grocery store...I bought 5 cans of spinach at $.29/can, about how much did all 5 cans cost? I only have $20, can I afford all this stuff in the cart? How about calculating the cost of an item marked 40% off? Send them to the convenience store! Give your child a certain amount of money and tell them to get some items, then they can spend the rest on food that they want. Your child will have to estimate to spend as much of your money as possible. This may cause you to practice your estimation skills also, so you don’t let them spend $15 on candy! Bake! When making cookies from scratch, double the recipe and have your child find the amounts for each ingredient. Installing a new driveway? Have your child find the volume of concrete required and the cost based on the amount per yard(cubic yard). Don’t fence them in! Give them a fence installation problem: calculate the perimeter and the total cost of the fence based on the cost per linear foot. Painting the walls? Have them find the total area to be covered. One gallon of paint covers approximately 250 square feet. Find the total cost based on the price per gallon. Sports Statistics! Periodically use the win/lose records of sports teams (including their own) and change that fraction into a decimal and percent. Rearranging your living room? Have them make a scale drawing of the room and furniture. Move the drawings of the furniture to create the most usable floor space. It’s a lot easier to move the drawing of the couch than the couch itself.