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We have talked a lot about parents reading to their kids on this forum and I agree that this is an important thing to do. Many parents do help to teach their kids to read.
What about teaching math, though.
You can use every day activities as teachable moments with your kids to teach arithmetic and other math concepts.
Examples:
If you are having your child help with the laundry, matching, colors, patterns, sizes and other math concepts can be taught.
If you have the child help set the table, s/he is learning one to one correspondence (one fork, one spoon, one dish, etc. for each place at the table).
If you go to the grocery store, you can have children help figure out the unit price and which product is the better deal. You can have them pay and figure out the amount of change they would get (this might be better at McDonald's where you are not paying with a credit card).
The calendar can be used to teach the idea of time and *how many days until something happens* by crossing off days.
You can use traffic signs to teach shapes.
You can teach predictable sequencing - first we get dressed, then we eat breakfast, then we go to school.
You can teach area by walking around the table or by looking at a book and seeing how many squares of a particular size would fit into the rectangle.
You can teach volume in the bathtub by letting them predict how many of a smaller cup will fill up a larger one.
You can teach problem solving. It is especially important for kids to realize that you can get a right answer in different ways.
For older kids
If you bake or cook, have the kids read the recipe and double or half the ingredients for the dish. You will be teaching volume and measurement and fractions and multiplication.
If you sew or make things, you can use those activities to teach measurements as well. If your child likes to make things from a kit, this is a good teaching opportunity.
There are so many opportunities to teach math during your day.
This doesn't have to do with math, but when my daughter was little and we were out front I would teacher her her colors by the cars that went by. I'd say blue truck, red van etc... she loved it! We made it a race to see who could call it out first.
My husband and I do this all the time withour 2yo.
When I'm at the grocery store , I'll tell her we are getting - "5 apples, let's count them" and then let her hold the bag while I put them in.
I'm saddened when I meet other peoples (older/teen) children and they seem to have no concept of how to do basic calculations - like unit price, make change, how to double a recipe (take 3/4 cup x2 = ?), or sales prices (% off).
I was in a conversation with some other parents - we were talking about life lessons (not the "big ones") but more practical things that we weren't taught but should have been, I wished I had a better understanding of compounding works !
This doesn't have to do with math, but when my daughter was little and we were out front I would teacher her her colors by the cars that went by. I'd say blue truck, red van etc... she loved it! We made it a race to see who could call it out first.
"Learning her colors" is how I lessen my guilt over letting her snack on dry Froot Loops from time to time, LOL
I think that we should take advantage of any teaching moments as parents. For example:
We went to dinner and had a spanish waitress. So we talked about spanish and we counted and did colors in spanish with dinner.
We go for walks and talk about the animals we see and touch the different textures on the bark and flowers.
Yesterday he told he his banana pouch wasnt full but his apple pouch was since he had an apple. I used this opportunity to discuss anatomy. We talked about his stomach and his heart and other body parts that you cant see.
We count steps on the stairs and cracks in the sidewalk.
We read books everynight.
He loves dinosaurs to we bought some dino books and yesterday he showed me a picture of a Quetzalcoatlus and actually pronounced the name right.
Parents can use just about anything to teach life skills. I think it's lots of fun, too.
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