During the summer a cool snack to share with your child is a plump and juicy watermelon. Although eating a watermelon doesn't seem like a math problem, it can certainly be turned into one. Take the whole watermelon and place it in front of your second grade child. Ask them how many seeds they believe are in the whole watermelon. Once they have made their guess write it on a piece of paper. Next cut the watermelon and give your child a slice to eat. Have her count the number of seeds in her slice of watermelon and write it on the same paper with the guess. Each time she eats a piece of watermelon, have her count the seeds and write the number found, adding along the way. For example, she counted 17 on Monday and 22 on Tuesday for a total of 39. Continue to do this until the whole watermelon has been eaten. Tally up the total and let her see how close she was to her guess. Then have her subtract her guess from the actual amount of seeds found to see the difference.
Taking a walk during the summer can be a great way to spend some time with your child while teaching her how math is used in our everyday lives. Provide her with a list of things to count and shapes to find as you walk around the neighborhood. Enhance her knowledge of geometric shapes by pointing out how many shapes are used to make a house or a car. Count the petals on a flower or the tips of a leaf. Another idea while on your walk is to make a list of different bugs to look for and record the number that you find. When you get home, create of graph to represents how many different bugs you found then ask her questions pertaining to the graph. For example, ask her how many more ladybugs than beetles did she see? This activity allows her to use key concepts such as simple addition and subtraction and critical thinking.
A rainy summer day is a perfect time to spend with your child and playing interactive games. Board games are a great way to help her with some additional math practice without making her do math work. Most games, such as checkers, go fish, and chess give her the ability to use critical thinking and problem-solving strategies in order to win the game. These are two key concepts needed when working out a math problem. If none of the previous games are available, there are numerous games that can be played with a deck of cards. For example, use a deck of cards to play a game of Toss Up. One of the player will toss the cards up in the air and yell out a number from 10 to 100. The person who picks up the cards has to make piles that add up to the number called until all the cards are off the floor. This is a great activity to help your child practice her mental math skills.
One way to practice skip counting with your child is by playing a simple game of catch. This summer activity promotes both physical and mental capabilities. Bring your child outside along with a soft textured ball to catch with. Explain to your child you will be playing a game of catch by tossing the ball back and forth and counting by twos only. For example, begin the game by tossing the ball to your child and shouting out the word two. Have your child toss the ball back to you and shout out the word four. Continue the game allowing your child to count by twos as high as she can. For different variations and more challenging activities, each time she gets the right answer take a small step backwards creating a bigger gap or once she conquers counting by twos move up to counting by threes.