In this series on estimation and rounding, you will learn about methods to teach your children about how to estimate and round through hands-on activities. These are important skills to learn, that as adults, we use in our everyday lives. It is also a recurring topic that is covered in almost every grade level of math from first grade through high school.

This first topic in this series is about learning to estimate to the nearest 10. As an introduction for you and your child. you can watch this video on rounding to the nearest ten. This can provide practice based upon numbers on a number line, with rounding up from 5 and down from 4. The video provides tips that will set the stage for more learning activities.

A fun activity for this topic is to provide you child with a set of toys, candies, cereal, or other objects that they can count. Before they count them, you can have them estimate to the nearest 10 how many there are in all. Legos provide a great toy to use for this activity because you have many of them and then can add or subtract to to have your child re-estimate for quick practice. You can even have them estimate based on color or shape.

Candies or cereals also provide a good object for tangible practice. You can add more or have them snack to take away. In addition to learning estimation, they can also practice counting, skip counting (by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s), addition, and subtraction skills. What activities do you do with your children to practice estimation at home?

Check back for more about estimation and rounding later this week.