5 Ways to Use Food to Teach Math (Edible Math)
Did you ever think that you could teach your child the basics of maths with the items in your kitchen? Check out these fun ways you can help your child to understand maths while preparing dinner and dessert at the same time!
Mathematics is one of those subjects that most students trip up on — sometimes making it so frustrating that it could turn them off from the subject for life. So how can you make your child have a love-love relationship with maths? By using maths games and making it fun of course!
Here are some maths games that you can incorporate into your child’s daily activities. The best part is, these maths games can be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home!
1. Play ‘market, market’
Set up a makeshift store in the living room and paste little ‘price-tags’ on basic food items that you can find in the kitchen. Then, get your kids to shop or become the cashier at the store. For the money, you can use real change (if you have enough) or the always-useful Monopoly (board game) money. This is a great way to teach your child simple addition and subtraction. For more of a challenge, you can even mark down these items (20-30 percent off), which they would have to calculate on their own. To make the game even more fun, let your kids ‘buy’ the items that they want for dinner or dessert, and as a reward, you can cook it for them!
2. Distribute food for breakfast
This activity is a great and unexpected way to teach maths on the dining table. This works best if you’re making waffles, toasts or even pancakes for breakfast. For instance, if you are preparing breakfast for three people, don’t serve the food separately. Ask your kids how you should cut up or distribute the waffles, toasts or pancakes so that each one gets an equal piece. This helps your child become aware of equal portions while using their multiplication and division skills.
3. Work on a recipe in the kitchen
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This is a great game to teach basic maths skills as well as get the kids to help out in the kitchen. First, you get your kids to pick out a recipe from the recipe book that they want to cook. Then, get them to read all the measurements indicated. To make it challenging, only have a few tools out such as 1/4 teaspoon and 1/4 cup. This will allow your child to hone their multiplication skills, especially if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of flour or one teaspoon of baking soda. This is both a practical and interesting way to teach your child maths.
4. Tangram sandwich (Tanwich)
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Tangrams are Chinese puzzles comprised of a single square cut into seven pieces. You can use them to learn basic geometric shapes and to develop spatial thinking skills. To make a tanwich, make a sandwich with the filling of your choice and cut off the crusts to shape it into a clean square. Then cut the square into two large triangles, one medium triangle, two small triangles, a square, and a parallelogram. Mix it up and have your child put it back to shape.
5. Ordering online
Give your child a budget and ask them to order from an online menu. This will help your child with estimation and addition, besides teaching a good life skill!
What’s the best part about all these maths games? Your children won’t even notice that what they are doing is actually multiplication or addition!
Share with us any creative maths games that you may have come up with to help your children to learn!