I have the math books and worksheets, but I want to make math FUN for my two teenagers. Any ideas?
Please, nothing lewd or offensive.
Thanks!
I think that I need to add a little more detail.
What I currently do is try to find math activities that apply their skills to real life.
They are actually 12 and 14, but are more advanced in their learning. They are still kids and they enjoy breaking up the lessons with something interesting. We have "drill races" and do "math baseball" but I am really looking for things that will make math real to them. Does that make sense?
I want them to enter college with solid math skills under their belts. I took them out of public school because I was horrified at the education they were receiving (my son's math teacher actually told me "don't worry, we'll be past that section in a week." When I told him that my son did not understand multiple digit multiplication. He was ignoring the fact that my son was lacking in fundamental skills! Scary).
I want them to learn, but I want it to be real to them.
Oh, and I do not allow calculators. Not at this time anyway.
Can you possibly arrange a field trip to the post office? They use tons of math trying to figure the bulk weight of packages and the size of boxes to use for packages.
Also, why not try doing an investment research project where they have pretend shares in a real company and have to track it weekly in the newspaper or online and decide when to sell or keep their shares.
Perhaps take them to a park or something and have them use measuring tape to survey the land.
There are a lot of fun things to be done in math. You just have to think about who would be applying it and either arrange a field trip to watch it in use or come up with pretend activities that are similar to the real thing.
Hope this helps.
Also, I am not sure what the name of the program is but when I was a freshman in college we had this awesome software that allowed you to take trigonometry and calculus equations and make music out of them.
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Math, like working out, is an exercise. It isn't necessarily meant to be fun. In other words, if you're preparing your teenagers for college, fun should be your last priority. Math can be difficult because the thinking skills required are not used in everyday life. The best way to aquire these skills is by reading texts, writing down the examples in the book until they are understood, etc. This is, of course, a very one-sided opinion. But I think the best way you could "spice up" your math curriculum would be to do the activities usually presented at the end of a sections homework problems. They tend to require thinking beyond reiterating what the section covered (i.e. they aren't plug'n'chug problems.)
OK, I'm hopping off of my soap box now. On one final note, the best think my mother (by whom I was homeschooled through 8th grade), and my high school teachers could have done for me was to stop trying to make my education fun. I needed somebody to challenge my thinking skills.
Good luck.
Sincerely,
Math Student
UCLA
References :
I can only share with you some observations that I have made over the last two years as a collegiate teaching assistant (both undergraduate and now graduate)
1) Very few students are actually prepared for college as far as math is concerned, but the 5 students (out of a couple of hundred-it's a small school) that were home schooled faired better then the norm. The greatest problem is that high school math teachers teach math, but fail to teach the students the skills that they will really need in any science or technical classes in college. We know them as "word problems", but math is really less about integration and more about finding a way to solve a problem.
2) Students have never been exposed to dimensional analysis (converting from one type of dimension to another.
3) Students have no concept of accuracy, precision, and significant figures.
All three of these are basic skills that are requisite for success at the freshman level in any scientific or technical degree.
As far as activities, I would avoid rhetorical situations, and find real life problems that require math skills that would be normally be segregated into different areas of math. Some ideas are:
1) How heavy is a 4 foot by 3 foot sidewalk that is 6 inches thick (this would also require some research into the density of concrete and conversion of a myriad of differing units.
2) Given a series of data (that follow a power regression) how does one manipulate the data to create a linear regression.
The depth of the questions will depend on the interests of your children, what fields they are inclined to study in college, and your level of exposure to such topics. The latter is an issue that is easily addressed by recruiting professors and instructors (even community college ones if a larger school is not nearby) in those fields that your children are interested in and finding out the kind of problems that they tackle. Contact the dean of the nearby school, and ask to arrange a meeting with the student and a professor in that field. You will be amazed to find that most professors will jump at the chance to help a young student grow, and may even have some research opportunities available for your children, so that they can get some hands on exposure to how math is really used.
I hope this helps
Ken
References :
Graduate Geochemistry Student
Well, some people find math fun, most do not, especially myself.
First of all, the best thing is to give real-world examples with real-world applications. Well, when was the last time an adult used any math beyond grade 4 level — very rarely unless they are in a specific field calculating such things as aeroplane aerodynamics. That was my grandfather’s job and he did that in his head and on paper, sometimes with a slide rule, nothing more. He really enjoyed the game of bridge and gave me a book when I was a kid on the mathematic principles of the game saying that perhaps I would one day read it and play bridge. Well, twenty years later I still have that unread book. Perhaps someday I will read it, but not because it attracts me, but because he would have liked it if I did; in memory of him.
The only people who have been able to explain math to me in a way in which I can understand and not actually fall asleep during their explanation are from the TV show called Math Shop on Knowledge Network channel. This show is excellent. The clip of the show on their website is not a good example of why the show is so well done, you will just have to watch some episodes and see for yourself. I plan to either buy or record all episodes for my children so I can literally learn along with them, since I still never go beyond addition/subtraction/division/multiplication. Who uses fractions or even trigonometry on a daily and practical basis, and algebra is just so pointless; where beyond theoretical explanations do you have an unknown number that needs to be calculated? Hm, who does that for a job? Someone must somewhere.
There are lots of “fun” websites out there, but I’ve taken a look around before and none seem fun to me at all, but try searching for “math fun” and see what happens. I know, oxymoron, but try to weed through all of the delusional people out there.
References :
http://www.knowledgenetwork.ca
http://tvschedule.knowledgenetwork.ca/knsch/KNSeriesPage.jsp?seriesID=103851&seriesTitle=mathshop
http://www.mathsisfun.com/
http://www.coolmath.com
References :
How about instead of giving them worksheets, give them the real world? These are some things we've done with my twelve year old…
Give them a budget, have them make a meal plan for a certain number of people, shop, and prepare meals within that budget?
When you sit down to do your bills, write in the paycheck, hand them the bills and let them do it.
Start a home business. Give them the seed money and ask for a business plan within seven days.
When they want something, let them figure out how to earn it. My son learned the most about math, when he started saving money to buy the wii.
When he asked how he could know how high his rocket went, he learned algebra, trig and the beginnings of calculus. It was awesome. He learned a lot about physics and load bearing when he built a bridge for the creek in our backyard.
There is math all around us. When they see it has meaning, it'll be much more engrained in their heads and the theory behind it will make more sense!
Have fun, I've loved math much more the past two years than ever before, and I love math in school.
References :
Can you possibly arrange a field trip to the post office? They use tons of math trying to figure the bulk weight of packages and the size of boxes to use for packages.
Also, why not try doing an investment research project where they have pretend shares in a real company and have to track it weekly in the newspaper or online and decide when to sell or keep their shares.
Perhaps take them to a park or something and have them use measuring tape to survey the land.
There are a lot of fun things to be done in math. You just have to think about who would be applying it and either arrange a field trip to watch it in use or come up with pretend activities that are similar to the real thing.
Hope this helps.
Also, I am not sure what the name of the program is but when I was a freshman in college we had this awesome software that allowed you to take trigonometry and calculus equations and make music out of them.
References :
You may have some examples of home activities.By some live activities at home teaching for math is easier.Say, tell one to bring a glass of water from kitchen.Now you have many figures in your hand.It depends upon howmany times you make him to do it.
3 times- 1/2 glass, 2 glass or 2 times one glass etc.Now take a clock and let him read time for Speed calculation. And let him join with his brother to do the same. Multiple the result each time with time,movement and quantity. More activities more interesting.
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