Creative Math – Mathematics is such an integral part of our lives that it exists in virtually every aspect of our day-to-day activities, from shopping for groceries to paying our bills and more! You can help your child connect the math they have learnt in school to how it can be applied in their daily lives.
Here are some examples on how your child can apply mathematics creatively in their lives!
Managing your personal finances
One of the most common connections to math is money! How does money apply to your child’s day to day life? The most common is how much money they have accumulated and saved. Your child will eventually learn math skills that will teach them how to calculate interest, compounding interest and other related theories, and learning about the value of money can help them in the future, especially when they learning to be responsible with their finances, choosing to take a loan or even starting a family and buying a new house.
Whatever situation they may find themselves navigating in the future, being proficient at math can help your child learn the best ways to save and invest their money for the future.
Recreational sports
How in the world does math correlate with the world of recreational sports, such as tennis, basketball and golf?
Funny enough, math topics such as geometry and trigonometry can help your child in many ways. For instance, learning how to hit the ball at a certain angle to get it into the basket or over and past the net can prove beneficial when your child learns more about geometric shapes and how certain shapes can ricochet off particular surfaces when enough force is used. In addition, math is already utilised when keeping score, so there’s that too!
Cooking up a storm
Math is a vital component of cooking due to the amount of measurements needed for most recipes. For example, cooking rice requires a ratio of 1 part rice to 2 parts rice to ensure the rice becomes soft and fluffy; too much water turns the rice to mush and too little can make the rice hard as bullets.
You can teach your child how much salt is needed or how much sugar should go into the pot, for instance, so it would be wonderful to show your child how math can work in the kitchen and why their food is always so tasty and delicious.
Going shopping
Shopping for groceries and essentials is a big part of our daily lives, and math plays a pivotal component. For example, when you pick out milk you’re not only looking at the brand of milk you need but how much one carton costs or how many litres of milk you need to buy to sustain your family for a whole week.
There is a lot going on where shopping is concerned, and bringing your child along with you for that weekly shopping trip will help them understand how to pick out items for purchase and whether certain items in question are being discounted or going at a “2-for-1” sale, among other examples.
In conclusion
In short, math plays such a vital and crucial role in every aspect of our lives, ranging from basic essentials such as shopping and cooking to personal finance and investment loans, and yes even the sports we play owe a great deal of gratitude to math!
Your child will become much more independent and have an insight about the way math works in their lives, but not without the support of their parents and school teachers to help lead the way.
H/T: NIU Math Matters
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