Real Life Math

I wanted to write about some things that the kids have been up to lately. Just to record for myself and to give more examples of learning through living to people who need them...
Last week, I got real ambitious, and the kids and I cleaned out our ENTIRE basement. And believe me, it was to the point where you could hardly see the floor for all the trash and toys strewn around. Part of the reason we did this was to put foam flooring down. They are in these 2' by 2' squares that have interlocking edges, and are made for kids specifically. Our basement concrete floor was getting very slippery in some places, and was dangerous. So, we needed a safer floor.
Part of the process of getting new flooring was to figure out how to cover it. Did we want carpeting? Yes, that'd be nice... but how much would it cost? How long would it last? What color should it be, and most importantly again, How much would it cost? :)
Part of home or un-schooling your kids, is sharing life with them. Keeping the mindset that each and every experience is and/or can be educational. So instead of doing all the research and math myself, I had the kids gather around the computer, and we looked at styles and colors of carpet that Lowe's had on their website. Then I called Lowe's to find out pricing. The kids sat there (talking amoungst themselves quietly) while I was on the phone, then listened after I hung up to how much per square foot the carpet was, and how long it would last, etc... Then we all went to the basement to measure, and figure pricing. We measured the area with a measuring tape, and then sat down with a paper and pencil and figured up the area, and the cost for the area. I first accidentally showed them the formula for perimeter, P = 2L + 2W and realized my mistake when the number didn't match up with what the Lowe's guy had told me. This "mistake", however, gave me the opportunity to show them two geometry formulas instead of just one. So, we refigured with the area formula, A = L x W.
We had to figure for 3 rectangles, actually, because of the one wall that juts out 2 feet in the middle. So, needless to say, they got a LOT of math in, in their heads, and on paper. No calculator. It was mainly my 8 and 10 year olds that did this.
My sister in law asked me, "How did you remember those formulas?! I would have had to look them up on the internet!"
I did! I replied. Some formulas I remembered and others I didn't... You just have to re-learn with your kids.
After we figured up the carpet pricing, one of my sons came up with the idea of just using the foam squares, since we already had some down as protection underneath our gymnastic ropes. This led to more figuring of how many squares we would need, how many are in a package, and finally how much each package costs, and total price.
It turned out that the foam squares were actually about half the cost of a very cheap, short lived carpet. (And you can use a broom to sweep instead of hauling the sweeper downstairs!)
My sons had no qualms about doing "Math". They no longer associate "Math" with boring figures in a textbook. They associate it with life. Doing something for a purpose.
Another example of that would be just the other day in the truck on the way home from the Jungle Book play. I was sitting outside the OLD NAVY store with Savannah, my 6 year old, Aaron my 4 year old, and Jaidyn, my 2 year old (who was asleep). My 28 week pregnant body hurt too bad to go back into another store, especially with Jaidyn asleep for her nap, so I parked by the doors, and let my 8 and 10 year old boys go in to exchange their new jeans for a size bigger by themselves.
SIDE NOTE: This would be considered real world experience, and socializing with people not their own age. :)
So, anyway, Savannah and I were talking, while we waited, about how many weeks until some event that is coming up.. I can't remember what it was, but we were saying it'd be 6 weeks yet. She wanted to know how many days that was, so I told her that there are 7 days in a week, and there'd be 6 of those. She began counting this up on her fingers, but this became too hard quickly, and I introduced her to the cool concept of multiplication. Instead of doing all that adding, just memorize the fact that 6 weeks times 7 days in a week means 42 days. She wanted to know how many days there were (that was her motivation for learning). It wasn't because her schoolbook said that she must learn that 6 times 7 equals 42. It was not an abstract fact, but a concrete one attached to an idea. Real life.
Just as we were finishing this discussion, the boys hopped back in the truck, and overheard the Math quizzing. This lead to me quizzing them on the higher multiplication tables all the way home. Every once in a while they love for me to quiz them on their "times tables" although they don't associate them with that dreaded school term. Travis got 11 x 12 = 132 even before Jesse did! We had a good time with it. We laughed out loud when I told Jesse, "and it's not 12 de 12"... about the answer to the 11 x 12 problem. (This was right after I'd explained how 11's were pretty easy. 3 x 11 = 33 (3rd de 3), and 4 x 11 = 44 (4 de 4)... Get it?" It was funny to us anyway. :)
Another example of real life Math (not to mention free thought, creativity, and dedication to finishing a self-appointed task), would be the new game my boys came up with the same day we figured up the basement flooring. They were all excited about getting all the foam squares, and ran upstairs while I was talking with my MIL and playing with the younger 3 children.
After a while, they came downstairs telling us about this new game they had come up with. They called it Human Clix. It's their variation of the Hero Clix game that they play with comic book characters on a paper map. Basically, they themselves are the characters in their game, and they play it on the foam squares as a gameboard.. sort of like chess.
They actually sat down for hours (spread out over a couple of days), and came up with multiple character identities and abilities. Each ability having a numerical value assigned to it, so you can figure out who is beating who after one attacks the other. They came up with some of their character's identities based on the super-hero's they had made up for themselves, their siblings, their cousins, and their friends a few months ago, which is another post in itself. Travis, my 8 year old, had this piece of yellow construction paper covered in columns of numbers! They were the numerical ablilities and attacks. I wouldn't dare try to explain it, because I don't understand it completely myself! :) LOL.. but they DO! And they have been playing the game with our 15 year old neighbor, Brandon, who has suddenly been interested in hanging out with the boys again. We took him and his sister Leah to a few things with us recently. Some horseback riding, and a play of the Legends of Sleepy Hollow.
It's like our prodigal surrogate children have come home... :) I enjoy having them as part of our children's lives.
Sorry, I got off the Math subject there... but anyway, there are 3 prime examples of how you CAN learn Math in real life without a textbook.
Oh yeah! I daresay that Jesse probably observed Math in action when he went to work building a 12 x 16 barn foundation with his Uncle Tim last week! Construction is defenitely a real life use of Math...
He worked for about 9 hours in 30 to 40 degree weather, and I'm sure he used Math again when they went directly after work to the comic book shop to spend the $13 Uncle Tim paid him! :)