Guest Author - Amy Daniels

One of the simplest and most enjoyable ways to learn math is to eat it. There is something about food that makes education seem more like play. When you not only get to take 1/8th of a pizza away but then get to taste it, it helps students retain the information they are learning; and fills their bellies too.

If your child is a regular in helping in the kitchen department she may not even know she is learning math facts. I remember cooking from a very young age and by the time I reached fraction study in school, fractions were already second nature to me.

I have noticed a common trend today to leave children out of the cooking process in the kitchen. Usually for fear of a mess. Or in some cases families eat only convenience food that require hardly any measuring. This is a shame because taking the time to let your children make messes by cooking food from scratch can really help them advance in their math skills.

So what do you do to teach math in the kitchen? Here are a few ideas.

1. Pick out a recipe for dinner. Instead of just cooking it the way it is, have your child rewrite the recipe doubling it so you can freeze some for later use. As he rewrites he will be mulitplying by 2. But he won't only be multiplying whole numbers. He will be multiplying fractions. He will need your help at first but with time he will be able to do this almost automatically.

2. Throw a dinner party. This concept includes multiplication of a recipe just like in example 1 only you are tripling or quadrupling the recipe. This also includes taking a tally of the expected number of guests, figuring out serving sizes per person, and then determining how much of the recipe you will need to cook so you have enough food.

3. Division. This can be taught the same way as multiplication only in reverse. Teaching early learning about division can be as simple as having your child set the table and then explaining only half the people will be there. She will have to figure out how many plates to take off the table.

4. Fractions are everywhere in the kitchen. You can't avoid them even if you wanted to. Pizza is a wonderful way to teach fractions of a whole because the kids get to eat some of the yummy goodness while learning. The more a child is exposed to measuring cups and recipes the more fractions will become a part of everyday life.

5. In America it is not common to find much use for the metric system. However, it does not make it any less important to learn. You never know if your son or daughter will be studying abroad in the future and will need their metric skills.

The best way to teach the metric system in the kitchen is to rewrite ingredient measurements in a recipe. Most measuring cups and spoons come with metric measurements as well so if your child is stumped on a conversion, she can measure it out and see where it falls on the metric side of the measuring cup.

As with any learning, repetition is the one sure fire way to help facts stay in a child's head. You can do this in a way that bores your child and makes them fight against it or have fun with it. Cooking is definitely more fun than sitting for an hour doing worksheets.

While cooking, don't be afraid to use the math terms with your child or ask questions like, "how much more would I need if I wanted to double the recipe?" It is okay to help your daughter as well. If she doesn't know just tell her. The point is to make the kitchen a fun atmosphere to learn in. If you spend too much time drilling her on facts, the kitchen will become a source of torture instead of fun.

One more piece of advice before you put on your aprons to go cook up some math facts. Make a copy of common kitchen conversions, laminate it, and put it on your kitchen wall. Having it handy will help your child with his/her cooking and by keeping it laminated you can preserve it through the inevitable messes bound to happen when children are cooking in the kitchen.