Horizon Education Centers, we do our best to assist with your children's academic success. And in schools, today's teachers are finding more innovative and creative ways to teach but sometimes they still have to rely on textbooks and worksheets. If your child needs a more hands-on approach to learning, there are a lot of things you can do at home to help.
In "Using Cooking to Teach Your Children Math," Angela La Fon writes, "Along with math skills, cooking also reinforces reading, science and of course independent living skills. Unlike worksheets, hands-on lessons in the kitchen provide nourishing and tasty rewards."
Your younger children may not be ready for the math of cooking, but just watching and participating in the process can foster curiosity. Children see the basics of chemistry in action when they add ingredients, help stir, and later see the effects of heat after items come out of the oven or cook on the stove.
La Fon wrote of how her eight-year-old liked to use a crockpot to make cinnamon applesauce. After seeing that it took eight apples to make one jar of applesauce, La Fon’s daughter multiplied and figure out that she would need sixteen apples to make two jars. (And after realizing how much work it took to make multiple jars of applesauce, the writer’s daughter scaled down her ambitions!)
For an adult this kind of basic math (multiplying single digit numbers) is elementary but it is important for children to see the real-life applications of what they learn in school. La Fon suggests making time at least once a week for your children to help you make a meal from beginning to end. This may require more planning or tailoring recipes but it is worth it.
