Math Never Tasted So Good

By Cheryl Bastian

Our children love math! It hides in their sandwiches, seasons their spaghetti, and
sweetens their apple pie. From the time our children peek over the table edge or
push a chair up to the kitchen counter, they investigate, predict, collect data, and
discover. The result: they understand. In the Bastian home, math instruction is
multi-sensory, hands-on, and delicious, keeping young ones asking for more.

Can children really like math? Yes! Placing concepts into children’s open hands
invites them to learn. As they weigh objects, measure ingredients, estimate
quantities, and calculate numbers, they internalize concepts which, for some
children, are nothing more than symbols on a page. Math becomes a part of life, real
and useful.

The kitchen is a perfect place to teach and reinforce math concepts. Cups of water
and corn syrup, measured, weighed, and compared, can be heated and transformed
into a tasty pound of peanut brittle. Folded, deli-sliced cheese demonstrates
equivalent fractions. The weight of a bag of flour can be estimated and confirmed
with a kitchen scale. Concepts presented in digestible, practical, and relevant chunks
dispel common math fears and anxiety.

Eliminating a parent’s fear of math is the first step in building math confidence in
children. These fears often linger from negative personal experiences or a lack of
understanding what, when, and how math can be taught. Knowledge complemented
by useful tools—scales, measuring cups, tape measures, thermometers—makes
math fun and relevant. Empowered and confident, parents often grasp math for the
first time in their lives, and their contagious excitement invites children to
enthusiastically embrace math.

Pre-Number Concepts

Pre-number concepts are vital to understanding the value of numbers and include
patterning, seriation, comparing and classifying, graphing, and introductory
geometry. Each skill adds flavor to the number stew simmering in a child’s mind.

Patterning

Patterns surround us. A newborn’s eyes focus on color, shape, and design. Young
children recognize patterned stripes in candy canes and colorful arrays on dessert
trays. Recognizing patterns in the world, and eventually in numbers, is foundational
to math. Opportunities to describe, reproduce, and create patterns expand
understanding and prepare children for numeration, prediction, and reasoning.

Making Math
• Make lasagna, patterning ingredients: sauce, pasta, cheese, sauce, pasta, cheese.
Draw a visual representation.
• Pattern fruit, cheese cube, or veggie kabobs.
• Open a package of Starburst chews on the seam. Notice the pattern. Extend and
incorporate additional skills for multi-level learning: sort and graph flavors, add
colors (4 orange and 4 cherry equal 8 candies), write a multiplication equation to
represent the package (4 groups of 3 candies equals 12 total candies), label each
flavor as a fraction of the whole package (orange is 4/12), and discuss equivalent
fractions (4/12 equals 1/3).

Seriation

Seriation is the ability to order objects in a series. Instruction begins with arranging
objects according to one characteristic, generally length or size, and is reinforced
with attributes of weight, color, amount, or cost. Seriation is a stepping-stone to
comparison and classification.

Making Math

• Build Cheez-It towers. The first tower is made of one cracker, the second of two
and so on.
• Arrange the carrots from a 1-pound bag according to length. Weigh carrots on a
kitchen scale and order according to weight.

Comparing and Classifying

Comparison, the ability to observe and analyze two or more objects based upon their
differences, is the converse skill of classification (sometimes referred to as sorting),
which focuses on the similarities of objects. When introducing comparison and
classification, focus on a familiar feature, likely color, size, or length. From this
foundation, two or more attributes can be considered, perhaps color and weight,
texture and taste, size and origin, or length and use. The ability to discover and
express similarities and differences in two or more objects is the first step toward
comprehending set notation and computation.

Making Math

• Purchase celery (stalk/stem), carrots (roots), cucumber (fruit), broccoli (flowers),

cauliflower (flowers), lettuce (leaves), snap peas (seeds), onions (bulbs), radish
(roots), tomatoes (fruit), and spinach (leaves). Compare size and shape. Sort fruits
and vegetables. Sort according to part of plant. Wash, cut, chop, and enjoy the
salad.
• Empty contents of one bag of 18-bean soup. Sort beans. Compare sizes. Make
soup.

Graphing

Graphs provide visual representations of comparisons and classifications. Young

children need concrete experiences creating and interpreting many types of graphs:
pictographs, symbolic graphs, real graphs, and bar graphs. Pictographs use actual
pictures of objects (photographs of people), symbolic graphs use symbols to
represent objects (paper cookies), real graphs use real objects (hats or shoes), and
bar graphs use columns to represent a quantity.

Making Math

• Ask family members if they prefer grape, cranberry, or orange juice. Graph results.
Other graph possibilities include favorite cookies, ideal lunches, preferred pizza
toppings, and favored yogurt flavors.
• While shelling peanuts, graph the number of peanuts in each shell.

Introductory Geometry

Circle, square, triangle. Shape recognition is one of the first geometric skills a child
learns, paving the way for intermediate skills including symmetry, fractional parts,
perimeter, area, and volume. Directional skills—the ability to determine left, right,
north, south, east, and west—set a foundation for following directions, navigation,
and grid work.

Making Math

• Discover symmetry in an orange slice, a hard-boiled egg, an onion, or a candy bar.

• Measure the circumference of pita bread with a string. Use a ruler to measure the
string, and discuss the concept of inches. Introduce diameter and radius. Measure
both. Cut the bread to make a semi-circle. Make a sandwich for lunch.

A diverse exposure to pre-number skills enables children to comprehend number

concepts. Repetition and life application solidify a pre-number foundation to fortify
intermediate and advanced equations and postulates.

Number Skills

Counting

Children walk through the toddler and preschool years identifying and reciting
numbers. Parents beam with pride. Their children have embarked on the counting
adventure.

There are two types of counting: rote and rational. Memorizing and reciting the
numbers in order without associating a number with a group of objects is defined as
rote counting. This stage varies in length from child to child. With repeated hands-on
activities, children initiate rational counting, assigning one number to one object.
This is called one-to-one correspondence. Assigning the correct number to a group of
objects, first with groups of one to five items and moving rapidly to sets up to ten, is
the last major milestone in the counting process. Along the journey, children learn to
count backward and determine if numbers precede or follow other numbers. Rote
and rational counting provide the foundation for number computation skills.

Making Math

• Model counting whenever possible. Count scoops of flour, strawberries in a quart

container, blueberries in a muffin, or silver-dollar pancakes on a plate.
• Count M&M’s in groups of ten. Count by tens to find out how many M&M’s were in
the bag.

Computation

Once a child has moved past the conceptual level of number and into the symbolic
stage, computation—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—can be
taught. Instruction should include opportunities to represent equations concretely
(with objects), verbally (with words), and visually (with symbols). Oral word
problems encourage auditory processing.

Making Math

• Add two sets of stick pretzels. Write the equation (symbolic expression).
• Cut an apple into eight slices. Eat one slice and write the corresponding equation.
Continue, reinforcing the subtraction concept.
• Place ten cookies on a plate; divide evenly among the people at the table. Discuss
remainders, if necessary.
• Add to find the number of pints in a gallon. Multiply to find the number of pints in
two, four, or six gallons.

Estimation

How many jellybeans in a handful? Children learn estimation skills once they
comprehend quantity. Introduced with amounts smaller than twenty, estimation
skills build quickly to collections of one hundred and beyond. Familiar, appealing
objects, ideal for beginning estimation work, create a framework for intermediate
problem-solving strategies.

Making Math

• Estimate contents of a given package: baby carrots, radishes, raviolis, oranges,

etc. Write the estimations of each family member. Count. Whose estimate was
closest?
• Hand a child three baking potatoes and ask him to estimate the weight. Record the
estimate. Weigh potatoes on a kitchen scale. Subtract to find the difference.

Measurement

What child isn’t fascinated with tape measures, kitchen scales, and turkey basters?
Fascinating tools make math memorable. Exploration and experimentation are
integral components of a child’s first attempts at measurement, which begins with
non-standard units—candy bars, saltine crackers, spoons, and Twizzlers—and inches
toward standard units—inches, feet, and yards, as well as millimeters, centimeters,
and meters. Measurement concepts include time (elapsed and actual), weight,
capacity, and area.

Making Math

• Compare 1 pound of several items: 1 pound of rice, 1 pound of lima beans, 1

pound of potatoes, 1 pound of cream cheese. Discuss.
• Measure the square area of the kitchen table with saltine crackers.
• Bake and cook. Double and half recipes.
Place Value

Instruction for place value in a base ten number system begins when a child counts
ten objects in a set, identifies a quantity of ten, and combines groups of ten to
create larger sets. Real-life experiences with multiple sets of ten are a prerequisite
for learning addition with carrying and subtraction with regrouping.

Making Math

• Beans, pasta, crackers, and small candies make excellent teaching tools. Place a
handful on the table and help the child make groups of ten. Extras are placed in a
separate set. The parent reinforces the concept by stating, “Make ten and count
extras.” Together, parent and child count by tens and then add the extras.

Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages

The kitchen fosters opportunities for learning, practicing, and applying fraction,
decimal, and percentage concepts. Exploration and part-whole vocabulary
internalizes piece and portion skills. As children progress to the symbolic stage,
reading fractions, decimals, and percentages, they easily associate parts and pieces
to the numbers they represent.

Making Math

• Cut sandwiches into equal parts.

• Measure and prepare ingredients for a cherry pie. Bake, slice, and discuss in
fractional terms.
• Describe a box of assorted popsicles in terms of which a portion of the box is
represented by each flavor. Draw pictorial representation.

Mouth-watering math feeds a child’s natural curiosity. A learning laboratory, the

kitchen provides a rich environment for children to measure and pour, divide and
cut, estimate and portion. The kitchen, the heart of the home, invites learning,
encourages sharing, and promotes thinking—a perfect place to be immersed in math
with the ones we love.

Cheryl Bastian and her husband Mike have six children, aged 21 to 4, and anticipate
the birth of another blessing in February 2011. Homeschooling since 1993, Cheryl
organized and led a Central Florida support group, mentors current leaders, and
remains active in the homeschooling community. As an author and speaker, Cheryl
encourages parents to embrace the education and training of their children. Her
books and resources are available at www.cherylbastian.com.

Copyright, 2011. Used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally
appeared in The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, Spring 2011.

Visit The Old Schoolhouse® at www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com to view a full-

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