In my latest CHEX Daily segment (just days before my first anniversary as a guest on the show) I chat with hosts Teresa Kaszuba and Mike Judson about all of the ways we use measurement in our daily lives...all you need to do is bring the kids in on the conversation!
I'm at the 26:40 mark, and you can also find the link here: https://youtu.be/yEFI560c6AQ
A few additional points:
- The biggest issue kids have reading non-digital thermometers is the scale. If the mercury goes one notch above the 20, they assume it's 21...even though the notches may be going up by 2s or even 5s. Remind them to figure out the scale before coming up with the temperature.
- Many parents ask if it's okay for kids to start with digital watches and clocks. My personal/professional answer is...absolutely. It gives them a great introduction to what times "look" like, they see the pattern of minutes starting over after 59 and hours starting over after 12, they start to "read" times properly, and get a sense for what activities happen at what point in the day. (On a parenting note, digital clocks have earned me many extra zzzzzs. My girls were very young when I set them up and taught them that they could not leave their rooms in the morning until the time started with a "7"!) That said, it's still essential that they learn analog clock skills when the times is right.
- Finally: when it comes to measurement, estimating is a very important skill that we work on a lot at school, and kids need to realize that it's OKAY if their estimates are incorrect...even by a long shot. They don't need to erase or backtrack on answers to prove themselves smart. Good mathematicians learn from their errors and use that information to do better next time. Never mind mathematicians, that principle applies to people in general.
Now for some fashion fun (note that the beautiful apple necklace and gold chain were given to me by a student at the end of the year):
Headed to CHEX Daily - first time wearing my green dress from Simons in Montreal (yes, a real green dress, cruel or not). A photo posted by Kate Winn (@katethismomloves) on Jul 14, 2015 at 1:37pm PDT
