Add Fun, Subtract Boredom: Everyday Maths Adventures at Home

5 ways to naturally teach middle grade homeschoolers maths in ways that really work

“Not maths again! I hate maths!”

We’ve all heard it. Or said it!

Why did maths become so tedious and boring? And why are so many of us afraid of it? Perhaps it is because it was the way it was taught at school… Well, as home educating parents we really can’t use that excuse with our kids. It’s up to us to lift our game and create meaningful, useful and satisfying maths encounters for our children.

Learning how to think mathematically doesn’t have to be fun. It can, and should be, an ordinary, everyday part of life, integrated seamlessly into everything we do. But mastery of maths skills won’t happen without some attention and deliberation. I’ve come up with some engaging and natural ways we can help our children learn at home through everyday activities and play, not worksheets.

1. Cooking with Fractions, Multiplication and Division

The kitchen is a superb place to wax lyrical about maths… I mean, verbalise aloud the calculations you make as you go about preparing meals or baking cakes and cookies! I often spoke softly to myself, saying aloud my thoughts as I worked through each stage of the cooking or preparation process as this gave concrete examples of problem solving, planning, strategizing, etc.

Although I grew up using ‘mother’s method’ for quantities, that is, gauging how much flour to use just by looking at it, a trick that takes time to learn, as a home educating parent I realised that using spoon, cup and jug measures to determine weight and volume meant my kids would naturally pick up these terms. As well as knowing how to measure accurately using a variety of measuring tools.

Math Concepts covered in the kitchen: Fractions, multiplication, division, adding and subtraction, ratios, measurement, time

Of course, it goes without saying that you need to let your child help you cook or bake. When you do, ask them to:

• halve or double a recipe (for example, “We need ¾ cup of flour, but we’re making a double batch—how much do we need?”)

• measure out ingredients using different cup sizes

• convert between grams and millilitres if relevant

• time cooking or baking durations

2. Design and Build a Mini Project

Kids are amazingly creative if they’re encouraged and allowed. Get over your dislike of the mess and chaos usually involved in creative activities. An effective way to do this is by training yourself and your child to clear up and put away afterwards — that part always seemed to allude me!

Let your child plan and build something. It can be something they dream up: some children have a never-ending collection of their ideas in their head and would happily construct something everyday, if not all day. Others might need a little prompting. And some might need a fair bit of support and help, either with technical skills or simply body-doubling to help with confidence or motivation.

Projects could relate to any topics you’re currently studying, or be spontaneous. Some of the things my kids have helped us build included bird feeders, nesting boxes, LEGO models, art and craft projects, raised garden beds, and a guinea pig hutch.

Once again, talking through the strategies and processes involved helps our kids to plan and organise, prioritise, problem solve and reflect.

Math Concepts: Geometry, measurement, budgeting

When helping your child with the activity:

• encourage them to measure accurately by providing different measuring tools

• show them how to draw plans to scale (introducing simple ratios)

• calculate area or perimeter

• estimate and compare costs using online or catalogue prices

3. Run a Family Shop

When my kids were little we played ‘shop’ at least once a week. It was usually an elaborate game with lots of props. Making the props — money, shop counter, cash register, items for sale, sales tickets, catalogues, shopping baskets — provided an opportunity for using maths as well as honing a variety of other curriculum focused skills.

By the time they were 10 and 12 pretend play was well and truly behind them, so we collaboratively developed and made a board game called “Shopping Spree”. Each player gets dealt shopping list cards and as they went around the board they visited shops corresponding to their lists and made purchases. They had to ‘round up’ or ‘down’ to the nearest dollar and work out how much change they needed.

And in their teen years the children organised their own market stalls, did casual gardening jobs for friends of the family, and earned money fixing computers, managing their own finances, expenses and bank accounts.

Math Concepts: Money, decimals, percentages, mental maths

I probably don’t need to say it again but I will! Scaffold how to think mathematically by talking through your own calculations and processes aloud: even if the kids aren’t involved in whatever you are doing, if they’re in earshot they will be picking up valuable maths skills.

For years I’d round up the value of each item as I put it in the supermarket shopping trolley and verbalise a running total of our purchases. As we approached the checkout I’d let the kids know how much money I had on me, and we’d work out how much change we would get.

Back in my day there wasn’t a price per kilogram on the shelf for items and we often found ourselves calculating which brand was better value for money. I still find myself doing this if the grandkids are with me, and then we look at the tag on the shelf to check.

It’s a lot of fun setting up a pretend or real shop at home and doing so provides opportunities to:

• price and sell items (e.g., toys, books, snacks)

• halve or double quantities

• weigh and measure quantities

• give correct change

• offer discounts (“This is 20% off—what’s the new price?”)

• keep a tally of earnings and profits

4. Maths Through Games

I could probably write a whole newsletter about the different ways kids learn maths through playing games. Games itself is a huge topic! There are so many different kinds of games. Chess is completely different to Pass the Pigs, and both teach valuable maths skills. And we can include sports here too: working out the complex scoring regimes of different games is a skill within itself!

Suffice to say, don’t over look games — any kind of game — as vehicle by which your child is naturally learning a range of maths skills and learning to think mathematically. Sprinkle a variety of games throughout the week into your daily schedule.

And play with the kids. Treat playing games as seriously as you would helping your child complete a maths worksheet. It is legit schoolwork!

Games are great too because they tend to level the playing field. Often we’re learning a new game alongside our children and will make mistakes. Kids love observing us make and recover from our mistakes. It is important that you let the kids make their own mistakes and fumble and stumble too: step in if they need help but encourage them to have a go to work things out themselves first.

Math Concepts: Strategy, logic, arithmetic, probability

Play games that build mathematical thinking, such as:

• Card games: 21, Multiplication War, Make 10, Sleeping Queens, Cribbage

• Board games: Squatter, Prime Climb, Amazing Labyrinth (strategy), Shut the Box, Snakes and Ladders

• Dice games: Yahtzee, Math Magic, Pass the Pigs, Beat It, Chill Out

• Ball games: just about any game with a ball usually has a scoring system, our favourite at home was table tennis

5. Track and Graph Real-Life Data

One of the first maths activities I did as a homeschooling parent was create a huge calendar month on a large sheet of card, divided up into days and weeks and numbered for each day. On this sheet my daughter, then five, drew what she’d done that day, plus a little symbol that represented the weather. At the start and end of the month we recorded her height.

Once upon a time recording data was an essential household task. Records of garden produce needed to be kept. Garden diaries recorded what had been sown when, how many seeds were used, how old they were, what quantities of food had been harvested and when. Bookkeeping was needed to manage household budgets so that bills could be paid on time. Nowadays everything is automated, hidden away from our children’s lived experience. Often that means we need to contrive activities to help our children develop these skills.

I found that doing science experiments was the easiest way to incorporate learning how to gather, record, display and interpret data in our homeschool. Science Buddies is an awesome resource that encourages thinking and acting scientifically, providing lots of opportunities to use and hone math skills.

Math Concepts: Data collection, graphing, averages

The following are some simple and easy ideas on how you can encourage your child track something meaningful over time:

• monitor and record the weather (temperature, rainfall)

• keep a log of bird or insect sightings in the garden

• record screen time, steps walked, or minutes spent on activities
  
  Then:

• use these figures to create bar graphs, line graphs, or pie charts

• find the average or compare data sets

• predict future outcomes based on trends

Lastly, there’s a wealth of mathematical thinking that occurs when we’re playing computer and video games. Most of it isn’t immediately obvious, and I find it useful to use an AI tool such as ChatGPT to give me a list of the maths skills my child is developing or using playing any particular game. This helps to reassure me that no matter what, the grandkids are actually developing and honing some maths skills. It’s up to me and their parents to provide additional opportunities by using all of the strategies I’ve outlined above.

Here’s an example of an AI generated summary for this request: “Write a one paragraph summary of what my 8 year old child is learning when designing and building a castle in Minecraft.”

They are learning a combination of spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and planning skills. They practice interpreting visual and verbal instructions, translating them into three-dimensional structures, and making decisions about scale, symmetry, and placement. Along the way, they develop mathematical thinking (counting blocks, measuring distances, understanding shapes), creativity (personalizing design elements, experimenting with colors and textures), and executive functioning skills such as sequencing steps, focusing attention, and troubleshooting mistakes. They also gain confidence in independent learning, as they follow tutorials and adapt instructions to fit their own vision, blending structured guidance with imaginative play.

It’s easy to do this for any activity the kids are doing, and very reassuring. If you want you can ask AI to include specific curriculum learning outcomes.

Tomorrow I’ll be sending out a round up of free maths resources as part of my Monthly Free Resources series for my paid subscribers.

If you found this article useful let me know in the comments, as well as what other games and activities you already use to help teach your child maths skills.

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That’s all for now! Until next time, Beverley

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