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Involve your child in planning an outing
Any trip, whether a week-long vacation or a quick trip to the movies, is a great opportunity to involve your child in the budgeting decisions you make every day. Share with your child how much money you can spend for the outing. Work together to list both necessary expenses and any "wish list" items. Estimate the costs of each and add them together. Do you have enough money to cover the costs? What can you do so that you don't spend more than you want to? Working together to make a budget helps build smart money management skills.
Learning to budget time is also an important skill. How much total time will you have on your vacation? How do you want to spend it? Help your child figure out how much time you will have at your destination. Brainstorm the activities that you and your child want to do, along with how long you think each will take. Work together to make a rough plan for which activities you'll do first and which you'll leave for later (in case things take longer than you expect). This activity gives your child experience with estimating how much time and using that amount to figure start and stop times on both the clock and the calendar.
Invite your child to plan a summer trip and write down vacation memories with My CYBERCHASE Summer Travel Journal. This fun printable also helps your child practice estimation, budgeting and navigation. Join in the fun by printing an extra copy of the journal to make your own record of the family trip!
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Use math to pass the time on long trips
License plate numbers on passing cars are a great opportunity for a fun challenge: How could you scramble the numerals to make the largest possible number? How about the smallest? For example, a plate with the numerals 783 could be scrambled to make 873 for the largest number, and 378 for the smallest. A game like this gives your child practice with place value- how a number's value changes when numerals are switched to different places.
How fast are you moving? Instead of thinking in 'miles per hour,' have fun figuring your speed using silly units of measure. Help your child find something that passes by at regular intervals as you move along. You could use telephone poles, for example, or fence posts or mile markers. As you travel, one of you counts markers while the other person clocks your travel for a minute. How fast did you go? Forty poles per minute!
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Play with math at the pool
Download and print the My CYBERCHASE Summer Water Journal. Invite your child to make the Aquari-Yum paddleboat using a recycled styrofoam tray. Make one yourself and race along with your child! While having water fun, the activity and journal will help your child practice estimation and problem solving.
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A lazy afternoon at the park
Play "I Spy" with a mathematical twist. Pick an object and consider a clue that would lead your child to that object by examining its shape, size or other attributes. For example, for an orange you could say "I spy a sphere" (practicing geometry). A clue for a baseball bat could be "I spy something about three feet long" (practicing measurement). And a clue for a striped blanket could be "I spy a pattern" (practicing algebraic thinking). Invite your child to look around and figure out what it was you spied. Once your child spies the object you've chosen, switch roles and invite your child to 'spy' something for you to look for.
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Have fun indoors
Next time you are cooking a meal, invite your child to help you time it. Working backwards from how long each dish takes to prepare and cook, what time should you start each dish so everything is ready at the same time? Have your child help you prepare a schedule you can follow. This activity gives your child experience with estimating how much time and using that amount to figure start and stop times on the clock.
Make a bedroom a special place. As kids grow, many enjoy rearranging their bedrooms to suit their new 'getting older' personalities. Invite your child to think about ways to rearrange the bedroom furniture to make more space to play, read, or do another activity. Help your child measure and record the size and shape of the bedroom, along with the room's furniture. Then help draw the room and furniture (or make a model) to scale. (You can also use cutouts representing the furniture so your child can try different ways to rearrange the room.) In this way, once you've found the arrangement you both like, you only have to move the furniture once!
Build Digit's Target Toss game from the My CYBERCHASE Summer Games Journal. Play the game together then invite your child to brainstorm ideas for improving it. Help your child survey friends and family members about their favorite games to create a new game everyone can enjoy. Your child will be practicing using estimation, problem solving, and data collection skills, as well as learning about circles.
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