NUMBERS AND PATTERNS

Talk together and help your child:

• find and connect numbers around your home and on family outings, eg read the odometer on the car to see how many kilometres the car can go on a tank of petrol.  Get them to note how much it costs to refill, then work out how much it costs per kilometre

• talk about sales in town – 15% off, 33%, 20%, half price. Look for the best value. What would the price of the item be after the discount? Is it better to buy two items and get one free or get 25% off the price of the items?

• budget pocket money and/or plan ahead to open a savings account or reach a savings target. Talk about earning interest. Calculate what interest would be earned using different savings schemes

• work out the floor area of your home, sports stadium or whare nui – how many square metres is it?

• talk about goals and plan ahead to budget for items for themselves or for others

• do complicated number puzzles.

Tip​​​​​​​:
The way your child is learning to solve mathematics problems may be different to when you were at school. Get them to show you how they do it and support them in their learning.

EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES

Involve your child in:

• planning to help make a dish or a full meal for the family or even a community event at the hall or marae – working out the cost of making it at home versus buying it already made, planning the preparation and cooking time – and focus on the ingredients and the amounts of fat and sugar, too.

• planning what proportion of their own, or their brother’s and sister’s, time should be spent on tasks (like homework, sleep, TV, sport, kapa haka) to make sure there’s time left for fun and family

• watching documentaries, which are full of facts and information using mathematics

• reading the newspaper to find articles or advertisements featuring graphs or tables

Tip:
Talk with your child’s teacher to understand what they are learning in mathematics and what the learning is in the homework they’re doing.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Get together with your child and:

• play games: find new card and board games that use strategy

• calculate the chance of their favourite team winning the tournament. Investigate how many points they need and work out what their competitors need as well

• play outdoor games – skateboarding, Frisbee, touch rugby, kilikiti, cricket, soccer, pétanque, netball

• plan and perform a rap, dance or waiata a ringa and draw up the outline of the dance steps on graph paper

• make a present or gift for someone using a scrapbook, kōwhaiwhai, quilting, doing tivaevae, collage, painting, carving, knitting, sewing or carpentry

• plan for when you have saved $10/$20/$30. What would be the best use of that money for a day out?

Tip​​​​​​​:
​​​​​​​Being positive about mathematics is really important for your child’s learning, even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school.