| The holidays are here, the kids are at home and | | | | Explore symmetry and fractals by talking about |
| families are spending more time together. Here is | | | | snowflakes and Christmas trees. Create your own |
| your chance to make your family time a learning | | | | decorations. Don't forget to measure the height |
| time by incorporating math into your busy holiday | | | | of your Christmas tree using trigonometry! |
| schedule. Math can be found in all sorts of | | | | 8. Christmas Cards |
| activities we do in this season. Learning to | | | | Make up your own Christmas card puzzles in |
| combine math in your daily routine is one of the | | | | cryptarithm. Decorate the cover with a tangram |
| best ways to help your child develop strong math | | | | candle, dove or other thematic creation. |
| skills. Here are 12 great ways to combine math in | | | | 9. Ornaments and Decorations |
| your Christmas activities. | | | | Construct your own polyhedral paper ornaments |
| 1. Santa Claus | | | | for the tree. Create patterns as you string |
| Tracking Santa's big trip is a great exercise in | | | | popcorn and cranberries to decorate the tree. |
| geography, cartography, distance, speed, | | | | Make a Christmas paper chain with a math fact |
| temperature and time zones. How far is it to the | | | | on each loop! |
| North Pole? What's the temperature at the North | | | | 10. The Twelve Days of Christmas |
| Pole? Does Santa have any daylight? How far | | | | How many gifts in all are given in the song? Try |
| does Santa have to travel? How fast is he going? | | | | using Pascal's Triangle to find out. By the way, |
| What if Santa had to travel to the moon? Why | | | | what would you prefer - the twelve gifts, or $1 |
| can't we find Santa? Maybe he actually lives at | | | | doubled for 12 days? What about 12 (that's |
| the magnetic North Pole, which changes every | | | | twelve factorial)! |
| year! | | | | 11. Holiday Calorie Count |
| 2. Christmas Baking | | | | Are you eating more than normal? Try tracking |
| Take your favorite recipe, double it, convert it to | | | | what you eat along with your activities for the |
| metric and use only a teaspoon and a quarter cup | | | | day, charting the calories consumed and burned. |
| to measure. Use an oven thermometer to | | | | This requires both measuring and arithmetic. |
| compare the actual temperature with the stove | | | | Demonstrate your results on a bar graph. This is |
| setting. Convert this to Celsius. By the way, how | | | | a great time to also discuss nutrition and health. |
| long does it take a turkey to cook, measured in | | | | Do candy canes count as a red vegetable? |
| seconds? | | | | And finally... |
| 3. Christmas Budget | | | | 12. Unwrapping Gifts |
| Get everyone to prepare a shopping budget and | | | | Well, I doubt that anyone will be in the mood, but |
| stick to it! Teach the kids how to use a | | | | here goes! Determine the probability that Dad |
| spreadsheet. Compare your actual expenditures | | | | gets a tie. Estimate and time how long it takes to |
| with your budget at the end. Bonus points go to | | | | unwrap all the presents. Compare and contrast |
| anyone who spends less! | | | | this with how long it took to wrap them. Chart |
| 4. Christmas Lights | | | | the number of gifts received versus those given. |
| How many Christmas lights are decorating your | | | | Estimate and weigh the bags of recycled |
| house? How many extra watts of power are | | | | wrapping paper. Explore nets with the extra |
| they using? How about on your street, in the | | | | boxes, and measure them using cubits. Sort your |
| neighborhood, your city, the world? | | | | gifts into Venn diagrams and make a pie chart to |
| 5. Christmas Countdown | | | | illustrate your findings. Line up all the Christmas |
| Count down and chart the days until the big day. | | | | chocolates into arrays; sort, group and put them |
| Make your own advent calendar. Have older kids | | | | into sets. Use the leftover ribbon to explore |
| include minutes and seconds. | | | | topology and create a gigantic mobius strip. Try |
| 6. Wrapping Presents | | | | to build a rhombicosidodecahedron out of the |
| Have your tape measure handy to measure the | | | | recycled wrapping paper or just take a short |
| dimensions of the package. How much wrapping | | | | break from math. |
| paper will you need? Try estimating. Why not | | | | Now wasn't that as easy as Pi? You'll soon be |
| make your own wrapping paper, using | | | | finding math everywhere and having googols of |
| tessellations! | | | | fun! |
| 7. Christmas Trees and Snowflakes | | | | |