Learning math is not limited to the one-hour-a-day, five-days-a-week, nine-months-a-year school experience. Math is everywhere around us and we need to take advantage of that with our children. The more they see math in their everyday surroundings, the more comfortable they’ll be with it. Here is a list of things you can do to make math engaging and meaningful for your children. These activities barely scratch the surface of what you can do - you’re limited only by your imagination.

In the car:

ø  Ask your child to add the numbers on license plates
ø  You and your child(ren) compete to see who can find the greatest sum
ø  Have your child manipulate the numbers on a license plate to come up with a target number, for example, the day’s date or the child’s age; younger students use addition and subtraction, older ones can include multiplication and division  

At home:

ø  How many pieces of mail did you receive that day?
ø  How much more (or less) does one sibling weigh than another?
ø  Look for graphs in the newspaper or online
ø  Before putting away groceries, ask the child to sort the items into categories, then you guess what the categories are; alternatively, you sort them and your child determines the categories
ø  Take out any loose change you have and ask your child to count it  

Shopping:

ø  Show him/her a carton of eggs and ask how many eggs there are in a dozen (A good egg carton activity: write the numbers 1-12 in the bottom of the carton, one number in each compartment. Place two coins in the carton, close the lid, shake the carton and open it. Ask your child to add (or subtract or multiply) the two numbers.)
ø  Ask your child to predict how many apples (or oranges or whatever) weigh a pound
ø  Show your child a produce scale and point out the ounce divisions and how many ounces make a pound
ø  Do the same with different cartons of dairy products  

Meanwhile, here are a couple of websites for more good activities: 

Explorations in Math
Math.com 
Math Moments at Home  

Dave Gardner
Mathematician in Residence
Explorations in Math