Unleashing the playful power of maths

Mathematics often carries the reputation of being a daunting and serious subject, filled with complex equations and abstract concepts. How many of us shudder at the mere sound of the word mathematics? How many of us believe:

• I’m not a maths person.
• I never liked math in school, and I never understood it.
• After all, I don’t need to use multiplication tables or formulas in everyday life.
• I don’t know math, so I can’t teach my child.

However, not without reason is mathematics called the Queen of Sciences.

• Maths enhances logical reasoning and problem-solving abilities,
• It is used in daily situations, from shopping, cooking, DIY planning, budgeting, and more.
• It teaches analytical skills, helping to break down complex problems into manageable components.
• It teaches disciplined thinking, providing a foundation for learning any other subject.
• Strong math foundations will help in the future to make better decisions in managing personal finances or evaluating statistical data.

Wouldn’t you like to help your child with maths even if you don’t like it yourself?

Dive in and start a journey where learning meets laughter and numbers, patterns, and puzzles all come together to form a fascinating experience.

The younger the child, the easier it is to create an atmosphere of fun, curiosity, and discovery around mathematics. Children who learn to like mathematics at its foundation stage, later in life find it easier to tackle more complex and abstract tasks. So, isn’t it worth forgetting for a moment about your prejudices towards mathematics and trying to look at it from a different perspective?

To be clear – I will mainly be talking in this post about real–life maths fun activities but there is nothing wrong with using a ready-made curriculum. We actually really like the interesting lessons offered by The Good and the Beautiful program. We also use books by the British publisher Galore Park – Junior Maths. Thanks to this, the boys follow the British national curriculum and have a healthy amount of practice.

On the other hand, why should I completely deprive myself of the fun that mathematics can be?

Let’s begin from the basics!

Old good baking

Following the recipe and measuring ingredients is the simplest way to introduce and develop an understanding of units and measurements as well as practicing simple arithmetic skills. And if you can just stop worrying about the mess created, I promise it will be fun! (That is something that took me a while to overcome…. It helps to get children involved in tidying up later.)

To keep me motivated to do baking with children we try to enter the Bake Off Challenge set up weekly by Twinkl.

Take it to the next level: provide a simple recipe and ask children to adjust it for your family (double it, triple or maybe halve?)

When we were studying Italy topic, one of the tasks was to prepare gnocchi. The recipe was provided in the book but Oscar quickly realised – the quantity is too small for our family. He decided to triple it and successfully fed our entire family. Ever since Gnocchi dish is the staple recipe that he prepares for our family’s enjoyment. Win, win!

Supermarket trip

There’s a plethora of “real-life problems” math books out there that revolve around shopping themes. And let’s not forget the classic game of playing shops, which is a hit among children. But you know what’s even better? Taking them to actual stores with real products, prices, and people!

Taking children to shops transforms maths into a valuable and fun learning opportunity. Comparing prices, hunt for discounts, weigh products, examine sizes and volumes, and decipher labels? It’s problem-solving at its finest!

Now try the easy budgeting skills. Give your children a list of a few items to find in the shop but ask to stay within a set budget. So for example: give them a list: 2 bottles of milk, single cream, a multipack of yogurts and ask them not to exceed £10. This one is just an introduction to the next point!

Budgeting

It is a very useful skill that could be so fun to master! We just tried simple budgeting skills while shopping but let’s take it to the next level!

Discuss with the children your weekly grocery shopping and together make a list of essential items. Don’t forget to talk about items we need and items we want! Next set the budget and go to your usual shop where you can ask children to compare prices, calculate the totals and make sure you are within the budget as you walk through the aisles. Maybe you need to leave some items from the ‘wants’ list, maybe you can find cheaper alternatives?

When you are waiting at the checkout make sure again that your total did not exceed the budget. And after the trip talk about your choices and adjustment made to stay within the budget.

DIY and crafts projects

There are lots of opportunities from drawing designs (shapes, area, perimeters, scales) to calculating costs for materials needed (budgeting again!) Construction activities naturally help with mathematical concepts. Children grasp how mathematical principles are applied in real-life situations, fostering a connection between abstract math and practical use.

The boys recently made a lovely birdhouse. They found a project online (if you are interested this is the link: https://www.rspb.org.uk/helping-nature/what-you-can-do/activities/build-a-birdbox.) In the notebook drew a picture with all the dimensions of boards they needed for the house and then patiently worked on it. On the go, they learned about different shapes, such as rectangles for the walls and roof, and the angles needed for proper assembly.

Some time ago, my daughter declared a decor emergency in her room, claiming it was becoming a bit too “kiddish” for her taste! Dad set her a budget and she had to plan and calculate the perfect paint quantity, the cost of transforming furniture into masterpieces, and the expense of adding flair to decorations all the time making decisions to stay within budget. And guess what? She conquered the challenge with flying colours and a room that’s now officially upgraded to teenage chic!

Another crafty project that involves maths could be planting a small garden and measuring the growth of plants regularly. Again, the boys did this last spring with sunflowers. They planted seeds in the pots, waited for them to start growing, and then measured the flower on a daily basis, putting the measurements in their notebook. Once the sunflowers got too big for pots they planted them in the garden and just carried on with measurements.

Sunflowers are great for this type of activity and next spring we will repeat the exercise but we will add the creation of simple graphs or charts. This will certainly help to understand the visual representation of data and trends. Think statistics!

Data analysis and statistics

The world of data and statistics can be as perplexing as a Rubik’s Cube at times, but they’re part of our everyday lives! So, how can we make these math concepts less intimidating? Well, let’s start with something familiar – like keeping track of the number of cookies they gobble up in a week, or the count of rainy days in a month or the number of books read in a quarter.

Now, imagine you’re on a road trip with the kidds. This is a perfect time for keeping children entertained by comparing different sets of data. Just ask them to count the number of specific brands or colours of cars passing by.

Got a budding football fan at home? Time to embrace their obsession and turn it into a statistical playground! Collect data on goals scored by different teams, and use these to explain concepts like averages, percentages, and rankings.

Let your teens become data wizards by recording the time they spend glued to screens every day, and plot a graph after a week. Prepare for some eye-opening conversations! Trust me, the results might shock even them (or maybe not, considering how much time we all spend with our eyes glued to screens these days).

And don’t forget the power of a good consumer survey! Ask your children to conduct an interview with family and friends. Ask questions like favourite colours, preferred snacks, or preferred leisure activities. The collected data can be used to create charts and graphs.

Board games 

The only thing you will be subtracting here is boredom and then you will multiply the fun. Playing board games offers a range of maths benefits. And not only math benefits. Tell me about cross-curriculum activities 😉

Strategic thinking, analysing, and decision making – that’s all closely linked to mathematical reasoning. Numerous board games require to work with numbers or money. You need to add, subtract, multiply, or divide. Recognise patterns, and look at shapes, distances, or angles. Games will introduce elements of probability and chance and will promote collaboration and communication.

Our family favourites are Monopoly, Game of Life, Uno, Rummikub, Tickets to Ride and of course plain deck of cards. There are many, many more and I think this is a great idea for an entire new post on the overall benefits of games.

But for now, I would like to just add one more idea: designing your own board game is another way to practice maths skills. My boys loved to make their own little (and faster) versions of Monopoly with their own money, prices, and rules.  And before our family officially joined the craze of the ‘Game of Life’ board game by buying it, the boys crafted a mini, personalized version, tailored to the whims and wonders of their own imagination!   

Maths mysteries, escape rooms, puzzles, and riddles

Ok, this one is not necessarily a real-life maths application, but it is so enjoyable that I just have to include it in the fun with maths post! The idea is very simple: the children work through a set of clues to unveil the mystery, open the locks, or find the treasures. While they are having fun learning different mathematical concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplications, divisions, fractions, or geometry happen effortlessly.

We have discovered ready-made math mysteries on the Twinkl website and incorporated them into our lessons. But you can easily design your own little math riddles and create a maths treasure hunt in your own environment.

Another idea is to leave an interesting riddle for children to solve in an obvious place (breakfast table, bathroom sink, stick to the wall, etc…). They typically get quite intrigued by these puzzles and start working them out instantly. For example, stick a note with a code-breaking puzzle on the door to the bathroom. The note asks them, ‘To unlock the door, you need to crack the code!’

Did I convince you that maths could be exciting and playful?

I really hope so! Because learning maths through fun activities and hands-on experiences is effective approach that transforms traditional perceptions of this subject. By incorporating enjoyable elements such as games, real-life scenarios, and challenges, children grasp concepts more effectively and also develop a positive attitude toward maths. And fostering a lifelong appreciation for any subject to learn is an imortant goal in educating children.

So, what are you actually waiting for? It’s time to unleash the incredible and limitless power of mathematics and find out that mathematics is not just about numbers and calculations!