Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Mathnasium, brought to you by the Chicago Mathnasium locations (West DePaul, Ravenswood and West Loop). That said, all thoughts, opinions, and gleefully left-brained family members are entirely my own.
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I’m gonna need everyone (including my mother) to promise not to snicker at my participation in this one: I’m promoting a math event. Yes. A MATH event.
While I’m, shall we say, slightly challenged in all things mathtacular, I seem to have been blessed/cursed with a math-loving family. My oldest daughter loves nothing more than seeing how high she can count by 3s, 10s, 15s and so on (in, as she likes to boast, HER MIND) and I happened to marry a guy who had the symbol for pi tattooed on his shoulder blade. Know anyone like this? Have I got the event for you.
Mathnasium’s annual TriMathlon brings the number-crunching to grades 2, 3, 4, and 5, with prizes and games offered before and after the event. Participants take 3 15-minute tests- appropriate to their grade level (and free online practice tests are available upon registration). More to love: the event is totally free (but you should register in advance ASAP), there’s a separate award ceremony for each grade level (and goody bags for all kids), and each participant earns $10 for their individual school just for joining in!
Want to prepare, or just have some mathly fun of your own at home? (Bonus: Many of these are awesome in triplicate, letting you bond with your kiddo, teach some calculating skillz, and hopefully- eventually- pass off a lot of these jobs to your underworked offspring.)
- Let them help figure out the change at a restaurant (or, say, at the corner tamale cart).
- Forgo the Google Map estimations and provide your kid with a) when you need to be somewhere and b) how long it usually takes to arrive. Let her decide when you should leave- but c) maybe check it out on the ol’ Google on the sly.
- Halloween is the perfect occasion for this one: Tell him how much one bag of his favorite candy costs. Can he figure out how much it’ll cost to provide for all of the imminent Trick or Treaters? (Allowing, obviously, for the Parent Tax of candy stolen on the sly.)
- Allowance time! If they get a buck (bear with me here, Richie Riches), have them figure it out in dimes, quarters, nickels or, if you really wanna settle in, pennies.
Got others? I’d love to hear them! Okay, P.J. and my kids would love to hear them. I’ll just be nodding and smiling at my babies as they blow me away mathematically.
(And I’ll be counting and checking their work on my fingers.)
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Saturday, November 5th, 2016 from 8am-5pm
at the West DePaul Mathnasium Learning Center, 1444 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago
Advance registration required, but totally FREE!
www.mathnasiumtrimathlon.com
Working on circumference, ratio (of Sharpied face to unSharpied body), and- oof- weight. This li’l guy’s got heft.
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