extend the learning: shopping

Want to help boost your child's mighty math powers? Team Umizoomi's Educational Consultant, Christine Ricci, Ph.D., has ideas for simple math games you and your child can play every day that will strengthen skills with numbers, shapes, counting, comparing, and more, while also building math confidence.

Teach some math skills on your next shopping trip. Ask your child to spot items by their shape, color, or size. Point to the biggest yellow box of cereal. Find the smallest bottle of shampoo. Which pair of pants is longer?

Encourage older children to read prices out loud. In a grocery story, you can play a "guess the weight" game. Take a jar of pickles in one hand and jar of tomato sauce in the other hand: which feels heavier? Now check the weight on the jar. Did you guess correctly?