Great time of year to teach fractions!

This time of year is excellent for teaching fractions!  This is the time of year we all bake Christmas cookies and other desserts.


Here are a few tips:

Make sure the child is measuring with the same measuring cups or utensils every time until he/she learns his/her measurements. 
Also, make sure they are well marked.

You may want to have individual bowls for each ingredient until he/she gets the hang of it.  This will help with being wasteful and having to throw away dry or wet ingredients that may have been measured wrong and cannot be separated.

After they have mastered the measures, you can start 'splitting' the recipe or 'doubling' the recipe.  Great hands-on fraction lesson!

ALWAYS be encouraging.  No one likes to be told that they didn't do something right.  So if he/she does make a mistake, you might want to say 

"Let's double check that measurement again" 

to encourage him/her to be more careful and 

letting them find their own mistake is always a big plus.  

Make sure they get used to reading the recipe several times to make sure they are not forgetting anything.

Don't forget to let them lick the beaters!  

All kids love to lick the beaters....

ok, even moms.

Give credit where credit is due.  

Praise them for all their hard work and 

let them present their baked goods to friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. 

Remember you aren't just teaching, you are making memories!