Math is the perfect subject to relate to the real world. How often have you heard, “I’m never going to use this in real life!” It is very typical for kids to feel like their math skills will not be used unless they become teachers or mathematicians. When homeschooling, you can either use a premade curriculum or look at your state (or common core) standards for each grade and decide what to teach and how. There are so many homeschool math resources, and you can choose which will work best for your kiddos!
Homeschool Math Resources
When looking for the perfect homeschool math resources and curriculum, you need to consider your child and how they learn. Some children will be able to use an online math program, while others may need a math curriculum in workbook form. Then, kiddos need math games, movement, and hands-on activities to drive algebra home! Here are some math activities your children will enjoy.
Math Activity #1: Legos Galore
One of the more significant concepts students start learning in 2nd grade up through high school is area, perimeter, and volume. I love creating real-life problems where kiddos have to build a house and find the area of each room or figure out the perimeter of the pool they made in the backyard of their lego house.
They can also find the volume of the different shapes they created. Building with legos makes learning math a little more hands-on, and kids can see the connection to how math is actually used every day by many different people.
Once you have taught your student about area and perimeter, it is always best to practice. These area and perimeter worksheets are the perfect practice tool! They go beyond just the area of a square or rectangle but include trapezoid, parallelogram, triangle, and more.
Math Activity #2: PEMDAS Puzzles
When your child hits 5th or 6th grade, you’ll have to cover PEMDAS in almost all math programs or homeschool curriculum. It is the shortened version of the order of operations (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction). Many will create a fun acronym. I learned “please excuse my dear Aunt Sally” when I was in school.
You may also make a foldable to explain each step or give an example. Adding in a math game or puzzle to help solidify what they learned is always fun! If you are looking for ways to help teach PEMDAS, check out this order of operations workbook.
Math Activity #3: Multiplication Madness
Math facts can be easy for some kiddos and absolutely miserable for others. Memorization often does not work, and children struggle to solve more complex math equations once in middle school or high school because they do not know their math facts. There are so many strategies available to kids besides just memorization now, and I suggest you try and use some of them! They make life so much easier!
Some fun multiplication activities are going on an array hunt around your house or neighborhood. How many objects can you see that form an array? Maybe your kitchen tiles? Or the flowers in the flower bed? An array scavenger hunt is a fun and playful way to help your kiddo practice the strategy.
Another fun activity for after single-digit or double-digit multiplication lessons is to write different numbers on your driveway and shout out multiplication problems. Once your child solves the problem, take a squirt gun and squirt the correct answer with water.
It’s always good to still have some math worksheets available for indoor practice or morning work. This multiplication workbook has many different pages full of arrays, math riddles, color-by-numbers, and more!
Math Activity #4: Pizza Time!
Fractions are probably my favorite math concept to teach because 99.9% of the time, you can relate it to food. Cake, cookies, pizza, oh my! It’s always a great idea to create a lesson around food because almost all kids love to help in the kitchen.
Cook a pizza with your child and discuss the different ways of slicing it. What happens when we cut more and more pieces? Fractions are way more fun when you are enjoying a delicious meal! Add Fraction workbook problems, and your child will be a fraction pro in no time!
Math Fun Freebies!
If you are looking to check out some of the free homeschool math resources or the free math worksheets The Relaxed Homeschool has available, you do not need to look further. Just click here, and you’ll see a couple of freebies!
Homeschool Math Resources Galore!
From interactive activities to homeschool math worksheets, you can use so many homeschool math resources to make your math block enjoyable and educational for you and your kiddos. Just remember to consider your child’s learning style when deciding on or designing math activities. The best homeschool math curriculum fits the needs of the child and helps them connect to the real world!
