Be a Researcher

What You Need

A paper and pen or pencil

What To Do

Help your child think of a question that could be answered by comparing numbers. For instance, are cats or dogs more popular in your family?

Gather information to help you answer your question. You could record family members’ responses to if they prefer cats or dogs, and then count up the totals.

Or, if there aren’t a lot of people around, find something else you could count and compare, such as keeping a tally of the color of different cars as you walk down the street or watch through the window as they drive by. Ask your child what color car you see the most in your neighborhood.

What To Know

This will work best if you choose something with between 2 and 5 categories, so you might not want to ask about favorite movies, for example, because you could ask 10 people and get 10 different answers! Encourage your child to come up with their own question. If the question is something they are interested in, this will be a great example for them to see how math can be useful.