MATH IS LIKE A CANDY BAR: 5 WAYS TO MAKE MATH FUN The next time your child asks for a candy bar, don’t forget the free math lesson inside. Instead of thinking of those 12 squares as a simple treat, use them as an opportunity to teach fractions. Just like candy can become a fun math game, so can other things in everyday life. “Math is contained in every object and every action,” according to George Nobl, a mathematics professor at the DeVry Institute in New York. “If you have an object, you can divide it into pieces [fractions], double it or half it or add it to another object. Everything has a mathematical side, quantitative and qualitative.” In order to help your child see math as a playful learning experience, take a closer look at the mathematical side of everyday objects and activities. Here are five resources to help make math fun for your child: Know any hungry learners? For very young children, check out the book, The m&m’s® Chocolate Candies Counting Book (Charlesbridge Publishing Inc., 1995) by Barbara Barbieri McGrath. Then grab a bag of chocolate. Soon young math solvers will be finding yummy ways to learn the numbers 1 to 12, while adding and subtracting. Try Humor. Learn to make light of math by reading Math Curse (Viking’s Children’s Books, 1995) by Jon Scieszka with your child. In this fun tale, a teacher tells her class, “You know, you can think of almost everything as a math [lesson].” It’s recommended for readers up to age 8. Stretch the Mind. If you want your child to learn how to add by seeing numbers in sets, don’t miss the book The Grapes of Math (Scholastic Inc., 2001) by Greg Tang. The author, a self-described “lifelong lover of math,” shares great techniques for creatively solving problems in the most unexpected ways such as patterns and symmetries. Watch a fun “math” movie. “Flubber,” a 90s remake of the 1961 “Absent Minded Professor,” is a movie that brings Newton’s Law of Gravitation to life. In “Big,” Tom Hanks plays a 12 year-old boy whose wish to be big is granted by a magical arcade game. At a dinner party, Hanks helps the host’s young son with his homework. In the process, Hanks offers a nice explanation of basic algebra. In “Stand and Deliver,” a high school math teacher, uses creative methods to get a group of inner city kids to learn calculus. Make a batch of cookies. Why not teach proportions and ratios with shortbread cookies? In the Reader’s Digest book How Math Works: 100 Ways Parents and Kids Can Share The Wonders of Mathematics (The Putnam Publishing Group, 1999) by Carol Vorderman, you’ll find examples of ways to share the wonders of math with “hands-on” learning. By Jody Wright