Fun Math Activities for Summer Vacation

Parents are the first teachers. Parents can also be of great assistance to their children during summer vacation by doing activities that reinforce skills already learned. The following fun math activities will keep your children occupied while reinforcing math topics that have been taught.

Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division

Take a trip to the grocery store with your child. Have your child keep track of the prices of their favorite items. When they get home instruct them to add up what their favorites totaled. Then ask them to choose one item to eliminate and calculate how much their new total would be.

When you arrive home using the cost of an item from the receipt and the number of ounces in the can or box older children can calculate the per unit cost of certain items

Measurement, Estimation, Counting

Planting a vegetable garden can cover science as well as math. If you are using seeds, children can count how many seeds of one type are planted and how many plants grow. They can also measure the height of the plants every few days and record what they find. If they have done bar graphs in school, they can put their findings on the bar graph. If you plant fruits like strawberries and blueberries, have the children estimate how many they think there are during one picking and let them count them before they are washed and refrigerated.

Geometry

Another fun math activity which can also be eaten after it is finished involves is to using marshmallows and toothpicks or straws or straws to make 2 and 3-dimensional shapes. Children can make squares, triangles, cubes and so on and then eat the marshmallows after they have finished the activity. Have children record the number of sides in the 2-dimensional shapes and the number of edges in the 3-dimensional objects.

Math All Around Us

Ask your child to choose a topic that interests him and have him find five connections that topic has to math. For example, if baseball is chosen you can look at batting averages, the geometric shape of the field, speed a baseball is thrown and so on. When children can connect math to the real world it makes more sense to them.

Fraction concepts

Engage your children in helping you bake or cook by allowing them to help you measure ingredients. While the item is baking or cooking have children use the measuring cups to work with equivalent fractions. Using water over the sink allow them to discover how many ¼ cups fill 1 cup and so on.

Basic facts practice and creative thinking

The game 24 (the single digit version) is a great way for children to practice basic facts. If you buy the card game you and your child can play together. It is now also available for individual use in the iTunes app store for $0.99.

If you have any other suggestions for summer math activities, please share them in the comments.