We naturally encourage our children to practice their English skills outside of school; they read, write, and talk all the time, sometimes even too much! They also have a grounding in science and technology, largely thanks to the internet and the smartphone revolution.

The one life skill that all kids need but that we seem to seriously neglect is math. Math is part of our everyday lives as adults, ranging from the small, such as calculating the weekly shopping bill, to the large, such as deciding whether we can afford that new car.

Despite its importance in adulthood, we seem all too keen to limit our kids’ exposure to math to a couple of hours a week in the classroom. If we can’t show any enthusiasm about math or consider secondary school math seriously, then it is little wonder most kids find the subject boring and aren’t interested in it either.

Four Fun Ways to Get Your Kids Interested in Maths 1

Here are four fun ways to get your kids interested in the joy of mathematics.

Get them involved in working out money

If you’re heading to the toy shop to get your child a new toy, you could tell them how much they will be allowed to spend and let them work out what they can get with it. If they want something out of their pocket money price range, you can ask them to work out how many weeks they’ll need to save up for it. If you’re doing the food shop, ask them to help you calculate how many of their favorite packs of cookies you can get for a certain amount. Math is a common feature of our everyday lives when it comes to money; it’s hard to find an excuse not to get your kids using it.

Play board games at home

Plenty of board games incorporate math and are great ways of bringing families together. Card games such as Uno feature numbers, in Scrabble, your kids will have to calculate their scores, and then there is the ultimate math-linked board game, Monopoly. Just pray that it doesn’t become chaotic over the cost of rents and mortgages!

Practice origami

The Japanese skill of folding a piece of paper into a three-dimensional shape teaches several math skills while at the same time letting your kids create a piece of art. Many of the folds in origami are symmetrical, meaning that what happens to one side must be balanced out on the other – the basic rule of algebra. Folding paper lets your kids make and understand basic geometrical shapes such as squares, rectangles, and triangles. If you’ve never tried origami, then origamiway.com has advice on how to get started.

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Read books featuring maths

There are loads of books out there that get kids thinking about math without realizing it. Books like ‘The Museum of Mysteries,’ ‘The Cavern of Clues’ and ‘The Planet of Puzzles’ require kids to answer math questions to advance their quest to save a valuable item. There are even books for younger children to get them involved with math, such as The Hungry Caterpillar. Can your child calculate how much he ate? Clue – it’s a lot.