I am a mom who likes to be on the go! Staying home only happens if it’s absolutely freezing or pouring rain, or if someone is contagious. One of our favorite places to visit is the zoo! There are a few “luxuries” that are not included in our membership. However, it doesn’t stop my children from asking for them! As much as I would love to, I can’t justify getting them every Mold-A-Rama or a $2 stick for them to feed the parakeets each time. But I don’t mind taking an opportunity to teach my daughter a life lesson: In order to get the things you want, you will need money. And we need to work to earn money.

Even as infants and toddlers, my children were expected to do their share to help with cleaning up their toys and putting their dirty clothes in the hamper. But by 3, my daughter was understanding how important her help was to me. We discussed the chores I expected from her daily (clearing dishes, cleaning toys, etc.). We tried out a couple chore charts that listed in words and pictures what job was expected. We finally settled on a magnetic one to encourage my two-year-old son to “work” as well. My children were expected to do all (there were only 5) their chores everyday.

“Everybody helps.” That was our chant to help them understand the importance of doing their part in the work. The work in the house needs everyone’s participation because we are all on the same team. It’s not just Mom and/or Dad’s job to do the work that the children are capable of doing themselves. And I believe that this will lay the foundation for my two children to continue to be responsible as they grow older – to have good work ethic. Eventually, they will become adults who contribute to their world.

For a day’s work, my daughter earned twenty-five cents. After she earned them, she would trade in 8 quarters for two dollars. And if she didn’t spend it all right away, she would even exchange for five and ten dollar bills. In the beginning, she didn’t trade for many big bills – she was so proud to spend the money she earned, $2 at a time! Eventually, she would earn enough money to buy a feeding stick for her brother as well. Knowing that she needed to work to earn her money helped her not ask for me to buy her something with every visit. She would patiently wait until she earned enough money. I was so proud of her!

After the novelty of earning and spending wore off and she was saving enough money, we started talking about how it is kind to give money away. It started out with some of the donation boxes we can find around the zoo – definitely a great cause. My daughter would ask me to take some money out of her zoo money (that’s what we called it since that’s where she used her earnings) to donate.

Not only am I proud of my daughter’s character and where her heart is, but I am encouraged by the potential of where her knowledge is going on this skill.  I feel like she will know the value and importance of money, how it shouldn’t be wasted or taken lightly.  I feel like she can evolve with both her chores to earn and her personal giving to causes that inspire her.  It becomes my job to find those new opportunities that balance earning and giving, and I look forward to that challenge.

This week I thought we could think about ways to encourage families to support  early math concepts at home with some simple ideas that anyone can do.

Everyday chores may be horribly boring to the adults who do them (ME!) but children can find joy in the same tasks if they are approached as fun, participatory games.  Take laundry.  For me, this is the worst of the worst.  The never-ending piles of dirty clothes, followed by the never-ending piles of clean clothes that need to be put away followed by the never-ending pile of dirty clothes.  It is a cycle that never ends.  Even when all of the baskets are empty and everything is put away, it only lasts a moment – not even long enough to appreciate it.

The following ideas can be incorporated into a parent newsletter.  Be sure to let them know that encouraging early math skills at home is easier than they think.

There is so much math in laundry, you just have to find it.  

From the dirty clothes pile, have your children find all of the white clothes and pile them together.  Then ask them to find all of the jeans, and make another pile.  This act of sorting can be made more fun if you hide three baskets around the room, with one example of each kind of clothing at the bottom (jeans, whites, and everything else) so they have to find the place each kind of clothing belongs.  This might be very hard, since you are asking them to think of more than one attribute at a time. For younger children, just divide the clothes into two categories.

Once the clothes are clean, have the children find the matching socks and show them how to roll them together.  Then have them practice their aim, by tossing them back into the basket.  This simple activity encourages matching skills, aiming skills, spatial knowledge,  attribute definition, and sorting.  This also means that you don’t have to find the matching socks.  See, it makes your life easier.

Putting away laundry can also be fun.  Set the basket with all of the clean clothes near the bedrooms.  Make sure that the children know and can identify everyone’s beds.  Then, give each child an item of clothing and have them determine who it belongs to.  Once they have it figured out, time them as they run to the owner’s bed to deposit the item of clothing there.  Do this activity before you fold anything, since everything will come unfolded during the game.  Once the clothes are distributed on each bed, have the children determine who has the most clothes, who has the least, who has the biggest, and who has the smallest.  If they aren’t sure about sizes, have them bring items from two beds back and compare them so they can see definitively which items are bigger or smaller.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to describe other simple daily tasks that can encourage early math skills.  What I like about many of these is that the home provider can also try many of these ideas out.  Let us know if you do.