Words Packed with Unschool Maths

‘Today will be 17 degrees cooler than yesterday: 20 degrees.’

This morning, I wrote those words in an email to a friend. And then I added this: ‘That sentence reminds me of unschool maths.’

Oh yes, those ten words are packed with maths!

Numbers: 17 and 20

Temperature: degrees C

Comparison: cooler than

Time: today and yesterday

There could also be addition if my friend is tempted to add the temperatures together – which she probably will – to find out how hot it was at our place yesterday: 17+20

And that gives us another number: 37

Will my friend do some mental maths as she adds the numbers? I doubt she’ll get out her calculator!

All those mathematical words could be turned into a mathematical vocabulary list. (The list would be English as well as maths.)

 So this morning, I did some maths without intending to while telling my friend about my Sunday, which was a bit warm for this time of year. It’s supposed to be autumn here in Australia, but after a summer season of abnormally cool temperatures accompanied by abundant rain, the hot sun has decided to make a late appearance. I just mentioned some more maths words: season, autumn and summer! (Of course, these could be science words as well. And geography has made an appearance too.)

Here’s some more maths that popped up in a conversation:

Last night, when the temperature outside was dropping but the inside of our house still felt hot, my husband Andy said, “Did you know a record was set in Sydney over the weekend?” For four consecutive March days, the temperature passed 30 degrees C. The last time that happened was 165 years ago.

We use a lot of maths without realising it, don’t we? Our kids are coming into contact with it all the time. They’re learning what maths is and how it works by using it.

If we get good at recognising all the maths in our lives, we can make notes about it. And this might be important because if we want to avoid using traditional maths workbooks, we’ll need something else to write in our homeschool records book.

Did you know there are some unschool maths challenges in my book The Unschool Challenge? In the challenges, I encourage you to put on your maths detective eyes, share how I discovered maths hiding in my youngest daughter’s interests, suggest you write your family’s maths story and talk about collecting delicious maths words.

Here’s an additional maths challenge. It’s for you, not your kids. (Of course, they can do it if they really want to!)

Challenge: Write a Maths Weather Sentence

1. Write a weather sentence.

What’s the temperature at your place at the moment? What season is it? How does today compare with yesterday?

1. Once you’ve written your sentence, list all the maths as I did.

2. Open up the weather app on your phone. Find the details for your home town. Take a screenshot.

What’s the point of this challenge? Maybe it will tune your ears into the maths that happens naturally around you every day. It could also give you some ideas for unschool maths record keeping.

Here are a couple of other things you can do with the results of this challenge:

1. Write your sentence in your journal. It might be interesting to know what the weather was like on a particular day of your year.

2. Share your weather sentence with friends who live in different places than you. Include it in an email or a message. (Does anyone still write real letters?)

Photos

These photos were taken yesterday. My husband Andy, our daughters Charlotte and Gemma-Rose and I were in the food court of a nearby shopping centre, enjoying a simple breakfast. We do that most Sundays after going to the 8 am Mass.