Math Resources That Benefit Your Child's Christian Education

With so many Christian education resources at our disposal, it seems mind boggling that America’s math students rank poorly compared to children living in Japan, China, or India. Obviously, in order to compete on a global scale, today’s math curriculum requires students to learn algebra, geometry, measurements, and statistic problems even in the elementary grades. In fact, by the time a child is in eighth grade, he should have mastered the basics of algebra and geometry to be ready for advanced mathematics in high school. To instill a love for math, develop problem-solving skills, and prepare a child for future success in math, both educators and parents need to be involved in teaching children. So, what Christian education resources and activities can parents use to improve their elementary child’s math skills and overall performance? Consider the following ideas:




At Home

Grab the apron and teach fractional concepts by asking your child to compare, estimate, and think about measurements when cooking. Ask thought provoking questions such as, “How many whole cups will this container hold? How many ½ cups or S cups? How many ½ cups equal a cup? How many ¼ cups would equal ½ cup or a whole cup? How much would we need to use if we doubled this recipe?



Discover relationships between money values as you pay your child for chores or give him an allowance. Instead of using math worksheets, have your child gather coins in his hand without showing you what they are. Start with small amounts, and ask your child to tell you the number of coins and their total value. Then, you have to guess how many and which coins your child has in his hand. Another variation would include having your child count the different ways he could use coins to make 10¢, 20¢, or 50¢.



Set up your own weather station or use the newspaper to graph and chart daily temperatures and rainfall amounts. After a few weeks, teach your child basic arithmetic by finding the average temperature (mean), the temperature that occurred most often (mode), and the temperature that was in the middle of all the amounts (median).



Clean out the kitchen junk drawer and use the “treasures” to teach your child how to sort and classify. Plus, you can practice using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to solve story problems. For example, “If we share 13 screws among three friends, how many will each get? Will they all get equal amounts?” If Dad has three broken doors that need to be fixed using four screws each, will we have enough screws?”