Seeing, recognizing, and counting numbers is essential for building your child’s math skills. The good news is, there are lots of easy ways you can incorporate math into your child’s daily activities — even in the summer. Take a break from the worksheets and practice tests and practice math skills poolside to keep it fresh and fun.
Consider incorporating these math ideas while splashing and swimming at the pool this summer:
1. Count the number of people swimming in the pool by ones or skip-count by twos.
2. Develop and practice the concept of keeping time by timing how long your child can float on her back or do a handstand underwater.
3. Create math story problems with the number of people swimming in the pool or the number of people out of the pool.
4. While your child jumps into the water, hold up a specific number of fingers and have your child yell out the number before he hits the water.
5. Go on a geometry search of different geometric figures around the pool. For example, the diving board is a rectangle.
6. Play “Rock, Paper, Scissors Says Math."
7. Estimate the number of umbrellas or lounge chairs at the pool — then have your child count the umbrellas to find out how close the estimate was.
You probably know that having your child utilize math skills daily is important to help stop the summer slide — but there’s no reason it can’t be fun, too. Incorporating math into an already-exciting summer activity like going to the pool will not only increase your child’s math understanding and give her an opportunity to practice, but will also help increase her love of learning math. So jump in!
