Make Math Obvious
Making it glaringly obvious to your kids that math is everywhere
Point out when “math” happens
“Math” happens constantly but is not always apparent for a kid.
When we realized our kids loved math, we started pointing out when math happened.
Math happens in their life
When they were very little, we would give them 1 sock, or 3 socks, or all the socks.
They would get angry, saying they only had 2 feet.
“Oh, I guess I counted wrong.”
It took them a while to catch on.
Later, they would purposefully wear whatever amount of socks we gave them, so we had to stop that game.
Short-term Score: Kids 1, Parents 0.
Long-term Score: Kids 1, Parents 1 - We got them to notice that putting on socks involved math.
Math happens in their interest
A few years later, the kids got into Minecraft, which meant the parents also got into Minecraft.
The kids would plan the objective - “Let’s build a mine to find some diamonds.”
“Let’s figure out how many pickaxes we’ll need,” we’d helpfully suggest.
A pickaxe is a necessary item to build a mine in Minecraft.
If we have a pickaxe that lasts about 40 blocks, and we have to dig down at 100 blocks, and we need the tunnel to be 3 blocks wide and 3 blocks tall, roughly how many pickaxes will we need?
Then, we would make a “mistake” and make the wrong number of axes (always less than we needed).
They would get annoyed at our mistakes.
“Oh, I guess I counted wrong.”
It took them a while to catch on.
Later, they would purposefully make their own pickaxes to add to whatever random number of pickaxes we made for them, so we had to stop that game.
Short-term Score: Kids 2, Parents 0.
Long-term Score: Kids 2, Parents 2 - We got them to notice that resource planning in video games involves math.
Math happens to them whether they like it or not
On the way home from school, they would say that the lunch line had been really long.
Math!
We’d discuss how a maximum number of lunches could be served per 10 minutes at their school, so if too many kids lined up at lunch, the line would back up.
On the way home from a sports tournament, they would share their thoughts on their scores and those of other kids.
Math!
We’d discuss how many points they thought could be reasonably gotten and how many would be the max.
On an elevator ride, they might notice the elevator's weight limit.
Math!
We’d discuss whether our family weights were over the weight limit and whether we should “kick a member” off the elevator because otherwise, it might crash.
Airplane luggage limits - Math!
Seatbelt vs car seat laws - Math!
Shoesize - Math!
Vaccinations - Math!
Calories on the back of candy wrappers - Math!
Math!
Math!
Math!
Obvious to me does not mean obvious to you
I grew up enjoying math, so it’s easy for me to develop examples.
As mentioned above, reading through it to edit, it might seem that the takeaway is to constantly trick your kids (maybe?!, but in a very light-hearted and fun-loving way).
The takeaway is that just because it’s obvious to me how much of the world is governed, driven, and uses math, it may not be obvious to someone new to the world we live in.
Making it glaringly obvious to them how math is everywhere is a fun way to expand their love of math.
Make it obvious forever
My dad, my kid’s grandpa, did the same thing with me growing up - but it was physics that he loved, so it was physics that he made obvious to me.
Even though I am now 44 years old, and he is much older, he’s still at it.
We were making gingerbread houses with my kids (his grandkids) yesterday.
One of the kids shared that more frosting worked better when building his roof a certain way.
Grandpa yelled - “Physics!”
That’s all for today :) For more Kids Who Love Math treats, check out our archives.
Stay Mathy!
All the best,
Sebastian Gutierrez