Bedtime Math

All of us good mommies and daddies do our best to read a book to our kids each night. 

But have you ever thought of giving them math problems before they go to bed?

When my kids were little, we had a routine. I would go into their rooms, read them a story, chat, and then tuck them in. Then my husband would come in, sit on the floor outside their bedrooms (in between both rooms) and give them story problems in math for them to figure out. He would just randomly think of things that were age appropriate for them to figure out. I love this bond that he formed with them and it also helped them develop better mental math skills.

Yesterday I came across a pretty nifty website that fits just what my husband did. It's called Bedtime Math. 

This is a free service that anyone can sign up for. (I am advertising this for free, they aren't paying me to do it!)

You will get an email each day, or you can put an app on your phone too.

They will give you a short story, that is fairly interesting, to read to your children. (You can do this at bedtime, but you can also do it while waiting someplace, or at anytime during the day.)

Then there are 3 levels of questions, a preschool-Kindergarten one, 1st-2nd, and anyone older than that.

(They also provide the answers too!) 

The goal is not to get a right or wrong answer, but to stimulate a discussion of how to find the answers.  I found it really cool and sent it home to my parents today. 

You know many times we feel that parents aren't on board with their child's education, but this just might be a way to help them open the doors of communication with their child.

Here's the question for today. Read it and see what you think.

Hey, there’s a Pink Moon tonight! That is, there’s a full moon, which happens when the Moon is exactly on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun (the exact moment was three seconds before we posted this, in fact). But tonight’s moon won’t actually look pink, as much of a bummer as that is. The name refers to the pink moss that grows throughout the northeastern U.S. at this time of year. Long ago Native Americans gave each full moon of the year a specific name to help them track the seasons, and the April full moon was named after this pink spring moss. June’s full moon is called the Strawberry Moon to mark strawberry season, and July’s is called the Full Buck Moon for the new antlers that male deer (bucks) grow over the summer. To top it off, a rare blue moon – two full moons in the same calendar month – can also happen, which totally confuses things. It’s probably easier just to check the calendar for today’s date.

Wee ones (counting on fingers): If it’s 5 PM now and the moon won’t rise until 8 PM where you live, how many hours until you can see today’s full moon?

Little kids: If there’s a full moon on the 2nd day of the month and a second one, a blue moon, on the 31st day, how many days after the first full moon did the second one happen?  Bonus: The March full moon is called the Worm Moon. How many months later is the Harvest Moon (September)?

Big kids: Full moons are actually about 29 1/2 days apart. If we had a full moon on May 3 at 10 pm, at what date and time would the next full moon occur? (Reminder: May has 31 days.)  Bonus: If the moon stayed on that exact schedule, when would the next blue moon happen after that?  (Reminder to get started: June has 30 days, and July has 31 days.)

Answers:
Wee ones: 3 hours from now.

Little kids: 29 days.  Bonus: 6 months later (March to September).

Big kids: June 2 at 10 am. June 1 is 29 days later, then the extra 12 hours bump it to the next day.  Bonus: End of July. The next full moon will be July 1 at 10 pm, and the one after that will be July 31 at 10 am.

That's all for now! Have a warm and fun weekend!

Patty