Summertime Ideas

As summer approaches, we need to remember that this important time of rejuvenation offers students time to explore, play, and be a kid.  It is not about daily academic programs or workbooks to complete.  

It is good for parents to continue to offer their child ways to maintain academic skills while also helping them to enjoy the summer. Besides the list of ideas I have shared before, parents may want to consider using Bedtime Math. It offers short interesting math practice that parents and children talk through and discuss together.  The discussion is the important part of this app; not the answer.  It allows parents to engage children with math in a non-threatening, fun way. Another good site that is geared towards parents is called Table-talk math. The site is in conjunction with a book of the same name by John Stevens, but this site offers ideas and examples of concepts for parents to talk with their children about.

Consider sharing these sites or the list of the ideas from my earlier blog post with parents.  As a parent, I know I always appreciate when teachers give me ideas of things that I can do to enrich my children.  I'm sure yours will, too!

A Parent Resource

I found this website recently, and have found some great resources on it.  It is intended to help parents talk math with their children, but I think it can give us some good ideas to tie math to the real world in our classrooms.

The site is called Table Talk Math.  This link will take you to the homepage, but the main place of inspiration for me is the Newsletters link.  In this link, Mr. Stevens shares everyday math examples and how we should talk to children about them.

Please consider sharing this link with your parents.  We need to continue to encourage parents that math is not about a set of problems on a worksheet or memorizing your facts.  It is real-world, and it is all around us all of the time.  I think this site will help them start to see that themselves!

I think the book by John Stevens looks like a good resource, too, so maybe I'll add it to my Christmas list.  It is only 11 weeks away, ya know? :)

ENJOY SUMMER--but still practice a little!

Our students work hard during the school year, just like we do.  They need this break, just like we do.

We want them to enjoy the break, but we know that practice will help them to strengthen some of their skills.

Click below for a list of ideas for K-2 and 3-5 parents that they can do to help their child "do" math without doing worksheets this summer.