Day 9: Making Maths Fun in Home Education

Welcome to Day 9 of our Home Educating series!

 Today, we’re focusing on how to make maths an engaging and enjoyable subject for your children.

Maths is vital to education, but it doesn’t have to be daunting or tedious. By incorporating real-world problems, games, puzzles, and technology, you can turn maths into a fun and exciting adventure.

 Let’s explore some strategies and resources to help you achieve this.

 Real-World Problems

Using real-world problems to teach maths can help children understand the relevance and application of mathematical concepts. I purchased a Real World maths bookfeom Amazon to help with this https://amzn.to/4eqnsky

 Here are some practical ways to incorporate real-world maths into your lessons:

•  Shopping: Involve your children in shopping activities to teach them about money, budgeting, and calculations.
•  Price Comparison: Ask your children to compare prices of different brands and calculate the savings. This can also include calculating discounts and understanding percentages.
•  Budgeting: Give them a budget for a shopping trip and let them plan what to buy while staying within the budget. This teaches them about addition, subtraction, and decision-making.
•  Cooking Measurements: Cooking provides a hands-on way to explore measurements and fractions.
•  Recipe Maths: Involve your children in measuring ingredients for recipes. Double a recipe or cut it in half to practice multiplication and division.
•  Conversion: Teach them to convert measurements, such as cups to ounces or grams to kilograms. This can be a great way to understand different units of measurement. 

Games and Puzzles 

Games and puzzles are excellent tools for making maths fun and interactive. Here are are some ideas to incorporate into your learning routine:

•  Sudoku: Sudoku puzzles are a fantastic way to develop logical thinking and problem-solving skills.
•  Daily Sudoku: Include a daily Sudoku puzzle as part of your math routine. Start with simpler puzzles and gradually increase the difficulty as your child improves.
•  Maths Puzzles: Explore other maths-based puzzles such as Kakuro, KenKen, and Mathdoku, which combine maths skills with logic. 

•  Maths-Based Board Games: Board games that incorporate maths can make learning a collaborative and enjoyable activity.
•  Maths Bingo: Create bingo cards with maths problems. Children solve the problems to mark their cards.
•  Monopoly: Playing Monopoly can help with counting money, making change, and understanding financial transactions.
•  Prime Climb: A colourful and engaging game that helps children practice multiplication and division while moving around the board.

Technology

Technology offers a wide array of resources to make maths learning interactive and dynamic. Here are some recommended tools and websites:

•  Online Maths Challenges: Websites that offer math challenges can make practice more exciting.
• Khan Academy: Provides a comprehensive maths curriculum with interactive exercises and instructional videos.
• Prodigy: A math-based game where children solve problems to advance in the game. It adapts to their skill level, making it both fun and educational.
• Coolmath Games: Features a variety of fun and educational math games that cover a range of topics.

•  Interactive Websites: Interactive websites can help reinforce maths concepts through engaging activities.
•  IXL: Offers comprehensive coverage of the UK maths curriculum with interactive questions and real-time feedback.
• Math Playground: Provides a wide range of maths games, logic puzzles, and problem-solving activities.
•  BBC Bitesize: Features interactive maths lessons and quizzes that align with the UK curriculum. 

Note: Some of these links are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you make a purchase through them. This helps support the blog and allows us to continue providing free content to you.

Tips for Making Maths Fun

To make maths an enjoyable subject, consider these additional tips:

•  Incorporate Interests: Tailor math activities to your child’s interests. If they love sports, use statistics from their favoritee games to teach maths concepts. I created curriculum based lessons for maths around Fortnite for example.
•  Celebrate Progress: Celebrate small victories and progress in maths. Positive reinforcement can boost confidence and motivation.
•  Create a Maths-Friendly Environment: Make maths tools and resources easily accessible. A dedicated maths corner with manipulatives, puzzles, and games can encourage exploration.

Share Your Maths Fun Ideas

We’d love to hear how you make maths fun in your home!

Share your tips, games, and activities on our Facebook page or tag us on Instagram. Your experiences can inspire and support other home educating families.

What’s Next?

Join us tomorrow as we continue exploring practical subject-specific tips, focusing on how to make reading engaging and hands-on.

We’ll provide you with ideas on creating a comfortable reading nook to help foster a love for reading.

Until then, happy home educating and enjoy making maths a fun and engaging part of your day!

P.S. Remember to subscribe to our newsletter, join our membership and follow us on Facebook or join our private Facebook Group called The Joy of Home Educating for the latest updates and exclusive content by clicking the links below.

Let’s make this home education journey an incredible experience for you and your family!

Tracey