Summer is here and the weather is warm! Let’s get outside and get math moving and shaking! There can still be a lot of learning while having fun and making memories.
Just being outside can increase the levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain, helping your kids (and you) be happier and less stressed! A change from the normal day-to-day can make the humdrum math lesson exciting. Children of all ages will tend to participate more in an outside setting and children are more likely to remember what they learn through practice and experience.
Taking math outdoors allows children to learn and master math and life skills at the same time. In gardening, for example, determining the best sun exposure for the crop (using a compass), tilling the soil, mixing and measuring the soil additives, counting and placing the seeds or seedlings, measuring and recording the growth and harvest, estimating how much crop one seed yielded can be a means of exploring math in the real world. Mastering the use of a compass while on a hike is another example.
Our world is made up of mathematical structures of all shapes and sizes, whether it is in nature or the buildings around us. Going outside gives our children a chance to see patterns in nature, as well as all kinds of shapes that make up our world.
Try this: Go exploring downtown and allow children to locate and draw buildings that interest them and then while enjoying a picnic lunch discuss and examine the image more deeply. How many sections is it made up of? Is it one building or a complex? Does the structure have multiple floors? Do you think it may have a basement? Check out an office building, for example, and then after discussion get the Legos out and see what shapes and configurations are necessary to replicate it. Or, do you have a small, portable microscope? Ask your children to scavenger hunt for leaves, flowers, tree bark, moss, anything they might find interesting and place them in a small collection bag. This is a science crossover but examine what kind of patterns and shapes are found in those leaves.
Keep the learning fun and relevant and your children will see why it is necessary as they grow. Explore math problems in real life and make math meaningful.
Have fun and make memories!
