How Reading Together Can Bring Math to Life

The gap between reading and math
Do you spend time reading to your children or practicing the alphabet? If you're the parent of a young child, of course you do! You know that starting school with a basic level of literacy builds confidence and a strong academic foundation, while instilling a love of literature.

Would it surprise you to hear that in a recent DreamBox Learning survey we found that, on average, parents helped their young kids spend about 49 minutes a day on literacy activities (e.g. reading books or playing word games) but only about 15 minutes a day on math literacy (e.g. counting games, numbers, and measurements)? Yet most parents don't believe reading is three times more important than math!

Children's literature can be a powerful way to use your time together to foster reading and math. In fact, one study found that kindergartners who were exposed to story-related mathematics showed a greater preference and aptitude for math activities than those who weren't.1

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Discovering the math in favorite children's books
Look for books where math is integral to the story. Counting books like My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman expose children to numbers and the order and relationships between them. This entertaining book with outrageous illustrations talks about swallowing slimy creatures, an ant's underpants, and regurgitation, and it's a hit with early elementary kids!

In A Collection for Kate by Barbara Derubertis, children learn the meaning of addition, counting on, mental math strategies, estimating, and regrouping. Kate worries about what to show during "collection week" as her classmates display shells, toy pigs, and magnets, until she comes up with a clever solution: a collection of collections.

One Grain of Rice, by Demi, is a beautifully illustrated "mathematical folktale" that helps kids learn about the implications of doubling numbers. A girl in a poor village in India outsmarts a selfish raja and gives her village enough rice to live on by asking for one grain of rice, then doubling it each day. And in Ludwig Bemelmans' popular Madeleine books, you're skip counting and doing early multiplication as the girls are walking two by two.

Find the problems
Some children want to talk about a story as you go along, while others aren't happy when you interrupt to ask a question! You'll know best when to discuss the problems the characters are solving — but relating the math in the story to your child's family life helps make important math connections.

Counting on Frank by Rod Clement is about a boy who asks questions like "If I drew with this ball point pen until it ran out, how long would the line be?" — the kinds of questions kids love. Using Frank as a unit of measure, the boy makes calculations about humpback whales, peas, and the bathtub.

In Math Potatoes: Mind-stretching Brain Food, by Greg Tang and Harry Briggs, rhymed couplets present challenges to efficiently group objects and arrive at a sum. (When you look up to the heavens,/Try to think in groups of sevens!)

By looking for stories that help students connect mathematical ideas to their personal experiences and putting math into the larger story context to solve all kinds of problems, math as well as reading can become a part of your family's story-telling time or bedtime routine.

— The Teachers at DreamBox Learning

Resources
Here are several web sites with more excellent suggestions for books that bring math to life.

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1. Hong, H. (1996). Effects of mathematics learning through children's literature on math achievement and dispositional outcomes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

Math Learning Tips for Busy Parents

At DreamBox Learning, we know parents want to be involved with their children's learning. As a regular feature, we include simple games parents can play with their young children, even during everyday activities. Parents can help develop math skills no matter what their child's age by talking about the math in the world around them.

I Spy
Remember I Spy? While you're running errands or walking with your child, you can reinforce recognition of larger numbers by playing this version of the popular car game. Look for 3 or more of any object in a given area — it might be parked cars in a store parking lot, red flowers in the garden, or dogs at the park. Then say "I spy 5 of something in this area. What could it be?" This reinforces categorization and cardinality, which is the count of objects in a finite set. Then celebrate your child's success whenever he or she spies the correct number of objects!

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Free Beta: Try DreamBox Learning K-2 Math

We will soon select an additional group of students to participate in the private beta program for DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. DreamBox Learning is the only game that guides children to succeed by giving them individually-tailored instruction. It's solid math wrapped in fun web-based adventures that kids love! We'll be adding the 2nd grade curriculum soon. And they'll be learning the math that's vital to their future.

If you are interested in signing up your Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd grade child(ren) for our next beta, please click here.

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