Schoolwide News

As the holiday season approaches, we eagerly anticipate a month of relaxing, traveling, and recharging with family. Breaks in learning are actually as beneficial as the lessons themselves— rest gives our brains time to consolidate what we've learned, and also gives children time to decompress emotionally. While small breaks are ideal, the long December/January break at EAB can lead to some backsliding in learning. Our amazing brains, in order to efficiently process and recall information, tend to cull what we do not use regularly. In this article, I have a few ideas you can incorporate into your holiday to help your children engage their brains in mathematical ways while keeping the integrity of the holiday. 

Family games such as Monopoly, Set, Uno or Yahtzee, are great ways for children to practice addition and subtraction facts, which slows the forgetting process.  These games also provide important family time, which often falls by the wayside during the busy school year.

Puzzles and challenges are great options for keeping kids’ minds busy during long car or plane journeys. While video games and movies may be the first go-to option for many, mixing it up with some puzzles and games keeps your kids’ brains active mathematically and prevents significant backslide in the new year. Einstein's Riddle is one of my favorites. This resource from Parade offers other logic puzzles for different ages.

A third way to keep your kids entertained over the break is to have them involved in the math of everyday life.  Have your children help you calculate how much the Christmas Dinner will cost, or how much of different food items you'll need for a larger gathering.  They can estimate how much each person will eat, whether you need to double or triple each recipe, and they can make you a shopping list based on these estimations.  Other everyday calculations could include how long a road trip is likely to take given a specific distance, average speed, and number of stops, or the cost of a holiday. 

A third way to keep your kids entertained over the break is to involve them in the math of everyday life. Have your children help you calculate how much the Christmas dinner will cost or how much of each different food item you'll need to double or triple a recipe. Other everyday calculations could include discussing the likely duration of a road trip based on distance, average speed, and planned stops, or figuring out the total cost of holiday expenses.

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year! If you try any of these ideas, I would love to hear how they went for you and your family. Additionally, feel free to share any tips or experiences of your own!