You do not have to be a math teacher in a math classroom to help your child learn math. All you have to be is a little creative and very patient. You can use the mathematics that is present in everyday activities to provide your child with valuable math practice. Not only will you improve your child’s achievement in the classroom, you will help answer the question, "Why do I have to learn this?"

Little kids love to help. They want to assist with the simple tasks required to run a household. Why not let them help while giving them some math lessons. For example, the next time you are grocery shopping with your young child, take them to the produce section of the store. Start out simple and let them place the vegetables on the scale and read the weight. Let them place the items on one at a time and watch the weight reading increase. Let them know how much you need and see if they can accurately measure out the correct amount of items. Finally, count the fruit or vegetables as you place them in the bag. You will be introducing your future student to the concept of weight and helping them learn to make estimations.

Your elementary school student can learn a valuable lesson in estimation on an ever day shopping trip. As you add items to the cart, you and your child should use a calculator to figure out the approximate total cost of your purchases. Instead of entering the exact price of each item, round the price to the nearest ten or the nearest whole number. Enter the rounded cost of each item into the calculator and determine the total cost. Then, your child can see how close the estimate is to the actual cost of your purchases (before taxes). As they get more comfortable with this activity, you can challenge them to make their own estimate. This is a skill that will be tested repeatedly throughout your child’s educational career.

Shopping can also provide a math lesson for your older student. If you have a Middle School aged child their teacher will thank you for giving them some practice with percents and decimals. Stores usually have great sales that offer a percentage off of the price of the purchase. Give your student a calculator to take with you on the shopping trip. When there is a price that is discounted, have your child change the percent into a decimal and then, multiply it by the price of the item to determine how much the product will cost. Also, determine what the sales tax is in your state and let the child calculate what the total price of the item will be. For example, let’s just say that you are purchasing a book that is normally $12.00. The book is on sale for 40% off and the sales tax in your state is 7.5%. Your Middle School student will change the 40% to a decimal which will be 0.40. Then he or she will multiply the $12.00 by the 0.40 to get $4.80. Therefore, the discounted price will be $12.00 - $4.80 = $7.20. Your student will then change the 7.5% to a decimal which is .075. Multiply the .075 by the $7.20 to determine the sales tax. The sales tax for this problem is $0.54. Add the sales tax to the discounted price and the total cost of the book is $7.74. This is a somewhat complicated problem, but giving your child this kind of practice will be very valuable for helping them understand a tough word problem that requires them to do the exact same thing.

Making everyday life an educational opportunity takes great patience. It would be a lot easier to just run in the store, purchase your items, and dash back out. But, spending a little time showing your child how math affects their everyday life can be invaluable. In this time of high stakes state assessments, word problems and math logic are tested repeatedly. Working with your own child on these skills will help them succeed in the math classroom and beyond.