25 days of math (with treats)
I love advent calendars. It’s a Christmas tradition that I always wanted and never had growing up, so last year I bought this lovely wooden one on deep discount at a local craft store, after admiring them for years. Of course, I immediately discovered why my parents probably never indulged us in this tradition and why pre-filled calendars are so popular: It can be a serious challenge to find so many tiny things to fit in those drawers–and to be ready by December 1, to boot! But it’s so worth it, especially when I hear all the math noticing happening every day.
With four children, the way I tackle my advent calendar is to divide it up. Last year, I divided the first 24 days by four, so each child got six drawers, and then on Christmas Day they got a shared treat. This year I decided to have more shared drawers, so I divided all 25 days by five, so that every fifth day is a shared treat.
The kids immediately picked up on the new system and proceeded to explain it to their younger siblings. I would like to say that I planned it, but I have to admit is was sheer dumb luck: The calendar is helping my kindergartner learn to count by fives!
“Look, Mom, my days all end with two or seven! Malcolm, your days end with one or six, see? And on the five and zero days we all get a treat!”
Another bonus to the calendar is that I have a pat answer every morning to the inevitable question, “Mom, how many days until Christmas?”
“Go check the advent calendar and count.”
Melissa Burt
Guest Contributor
Melissa is a Graphic Designer & Copywriter at Educational Service District 112 who provides design for Math Anywhere’s printed and online materials. She is also the mother of four young math-curious kiddos.
Mom: [gives Cal a plate with one biscuit]
To market anything to the 10 and under crowd these days all you need to do is add some big eyes and the element of surprise. For my son (10) and my niece (8) this holiday Harry Potter Mystery Mini-figures became the obsession. With one figure each in hand we started our seven store sold-out toy search for more. I eavesdropped in on their backseat chatter as we traveled from store to store.
The back of the box kept them occupied as they began to categorize the figures into four groups: 1) common – 1/6 odds 2) uncommon- 1/12 odds 3) rare – 1/24 odds and 4) epic – 1/36 odds. They went on to discuss their ideas about how many you would have to buy to get all 12 figures in this series. They also had boxes from 2 different series, which both included Harry Potter, of course. “How many Harry’s would you get if you tried to collect all the figures?” they wondered. And, “What are the chances we both get an ‘epic’?” and “What are the chances we get the same figure?” Somehow, nobody but me was wondering, “How many stores will we have to visit?” or “How many miles have we covered so far?” Occasionally they turned to the calculator on my phone to work out some of their reasoning. I have no idea if their math was correct. This is partly because my attention was on the road, but also because it didn’t really matter to me in that moment if it was. This was a mathematical conversation between two kids who were motivated to explore this situation. What more can I ask? I work hard to be patient and accepting of math ideas, trusting that correct methods will show up with time. I don’t need to do anything in this moment, but listen. Even by asking a question I might run the risk of derailing the conversation, or zapping their energy.
