If you missed part 1 of this post, I talked about ways to keep your kids reading over the summer to avoid the “summer slide.”  Today, I want to give you some easy ways to keep your kids doing math, as well!  

Math is actually the more loved subject for my son, so it’s not a struggle for me to encourage him to practice

Here are some ways that we incorporate math into our summer fun:

Play classic board games  

We love board games at our house.  Some games we love that require math skills include Monopoly, Yahtzee, Life, Cribbage, and pretty much any card game.  

Bake a favorite recipe

Baking requires a TON of math skills!  Your kids will be working on fraction math while making something tasty — win-win! 

Have them buy things for you

Give your kids cash to make small purchases.  This requires them to know how much things cost, how much they can buy with what they are given, and how much change to expect.  

Sidewalk chalk math

You can write down numbers in a number line, and have them only hop on the odds or evens.  You can have them count by 2s, 3s, 5s, or 10s, and throw water balloons at only those numbers, or squirt them with a water gun.  Give your kids two numbers and have them hop on or squirt the ones that are greater than or less than.  Draw a hopscotch course and write math problems in the squares — have them say the answers as they hop on each one.  You can do so much with chalk! 

Talk about the day

You can talk about clock math all day!  Make comments about what time you usually get up in the mornings, when you normally eat lunch, what time dad gets home from work, etc.  You can ask things like, “Do we eat breakfast in the morning, afternoon, or evening? And would that be A.M. or P.M.?”  You can ask your kids what time it is, using an analog clock.  Get them a watch to use themselves — kids love watches!  

Get your kids a calendar

Calendar math is another easy one to talk about.  Buy/print/make your kids a calendar and mark special dates or holidays.  Then you can ask things such as, “How many days until we go to grandma’s house?” or, “How many weeks until school starts back?”  

Keep encouraging your kids to read and do math over the summer, but try to make it fun!  It’s easy to include a little education in everyday activities such as these, so hopefully your kids don’t “slide” this summer!