Math storytelling is a great tool for engaging your child in extra math practice. It can be an add-on to reinforce math routines already in place or an engaging stand alone activity.  With math storytelling, it's not necessary to set aside additional time for worksheets or devices!  The stories just fit into everyday life.

Let's compare math storytelling to having your child do worksheets.  During each week of a 10-week summer, if your child completes a worksheet containing five story problems, that would be 50 story problems total during the summer.

Similarly, If you engage your child in math storytelling 5-days a week, your child ends up doing the same amount of math practice. However, and this is where there is a significant difference, math storytelling usually includes one or two follow up questions to further explore the math involved in the scenario.  That adds up to much more than 50 math problems during the course of the summer.  Just saying!

In this post I will describe how you can use math storytelling during moments when you are already engaged in an activity or conversation with your child.  We're going to talk about how to recognize a moment that is primed for a story and what to included in your math storytelling to maximize its usefulness.  It might take some practice on your part but math storytelling is such a simple way to keep your child's math skills fresh.

We will also look at some advantages and disadvantages of math storytelling.  I'll share some of my tips and tricks for telling math stories without derailing the precious time you spend with your child. Math storytelling should not be a time that your child resents.  After reading this post, you will know how to tell math stories without feeling like an interruption to the valuable time you and your child have together.  

Let's get started!

First, math storytelling takes place when you and your child are already spending time together. 

Anywhere, anytime; driving to the soccer field or dentist office; eating breakfast or brushing teeth; putting a puzzle together or watching TV; Anywhere, anytime.  Start noticing when you are having fun with your child or talking about something fun she did/will do.  Notice it and then turn it into a brief moment of math storytelling.  

In other words, math storytelling involves a shared experience between the two of you.  There are three variations  of "shared experiences".

• The obvious shared experience is when you and your child are actually doing something together.  Tell a math story that is, in some way, about what you are doing together.

• Tell a math story about something your child did without your involvement. You are made aware of some details -either directly from your child or indirectly from someone else (overnight with grandparents).

• You can also tell a math story about a future activity your child will be involved in.  You know at least some details of that planned activity (kite flying with BF and his family).

 Whether you are spending time with your child or you are aware of experiences from time he spent elsewhere, you have plenty of topics for telling a math story.  Even if your child doesn't tell you ANYTHING about the overnight at Grandma's or the kite flying playdate with the BF, you most likely are aware of what is planned and can improvise to make-up math stories.  

Secondly, math storytelling usually includes fictional elements to help mathematics fit into the story.

The math story can be 100% true.  For example, your child collects some seashells and then collects more.  The story could be about adding the two amounts together.  However, opportunities for true math stories are much less than if you take advantage of 'poetic license' by mixing some fictional numbers in with your child's experience.  

 If done in the right way, adding a fictitious component to the math story can add a degree of fun to the stories.  Use humor and/or CRAZILY, ridiculous numbers for the scenario being used.  Often, huge numbers add a fun twist, but your child has to be able to work with the numbers in order to benefit from them.  Another example would be telling a math story based on the time of day.  Telling a math story that takes place very late at night can be the point of intrigue.  Kids love toying with the idea of staying awake way past bedtime.  

Thirdly, math storytelling should be limited to just a small portion of the time you spend with your child. 

Keep it brief! 

In reality, it is an interruption to the interaction you and your child are having.  Don't allow the math storytelling to become the focus of your interaction.  Don't permanently derail the initial activity you were doing with your child.  Quickly return to what you were doing.  

You want your child to realize you can respect time boundaries and limit mental tasks to only a fraction of the time you spend together.  Many adults, including myself, find it difficult to resist extending "teachable moments."  Before we realize, it can become 10, 20 -even 30 minutes long, wearing down the child to the point where they are no longer enjoying the interaction.  Their peek interest level bottomed-out long ago.

Parents have told me their child eventually begins asking, "Tell me another math story."  I encourage parents to stick with limiting their math storytelling.  Maybe continue with one more, but then that's enough.  The idea is to maintain your child's level anticipation for future math stories.

Lastly, consider these two options when telling math stories.

Solutions: 

Some parents intentionally give a solution to math stories, having their child agree or disagree.  There is nothing magical in giving solutions, but for some children it makes the task more approachable.  They see it more as a conversation rather than a problem to be solved.  It's a small difference, but a big deal for some kids.  Agreeing or disagreeing can become a guessing game without any mathematical reasoning taking place -they just guess.  You have to know your child.  Try different approaches until you find a good fit.

Opening Lines:

Your transition into the math story can make or break your child's level of enthusiasm to participate.  A humorous approach or establishing a predictable segue can help kids recognize what's about to happen.  And I'll repeat here, consistently keeping math storytelling brief can go a long way to helping your child enjoy them.  Here's a list of different 'opening lines' used by different parents to transition into telling a math story:

• "What if":  Riding bikes around the neighborhood, "What if we rode our bikes REALLY far tomorrow, like 169 miles!  And then we rode EVEN TEN MORE MILES!  How far would we ride tomorrow?"
• "Wouldn't it be CRAZY":  You just finished reading your child a bedtime story.  "Wouldn't it be CRAZY if we could stay up ALL night reading adventure stories?  I bet we could read 100 pages before midnight!  Then we could stay up EVEN LATER and read 150 more pages!  How many pages would we read altogether?"
• "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?":  Your child is brushing her teeth in the morning.  "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  I'm thinking of a math story!  If we add your twenty teeth together to my 32 teeth, how many teeth do we have between the two of us?"
• "Do you see what I see?":  You are raking leaves with your child.  "Do you see what I see?  There are 4 piles of leaves.  If each pile has 500 leaves, how many leaves do we have?"

 Advantages & Disadvantages:

Advantages of math storytelling include the connection they have to your child's real life experiences and the interaction between you and your child when presented in a collaborative manner rather than a "gotcha" approach.

Disadvantages of math story telling are mostly parent related.  Each day, you will need to find a way to remind yourself to tell a math story during an interaction you have with your child.  Until it becomes a habit, some parents place notes in places like their breakfast spot, the driver's seat of the car and their work station at home.  Math storytelling doesn't have to take place during these times, it's just a matter of finding the best spots for you to remind yourself.  Some parents set a couple reminders on their device.  You'll figure out what works best for you.

Once you've identified a moment to tell a math story, there can be another challenge for the parent.  Coming up with a skill to insert into the story and then starting the story can be awkward.  It isn't easy for every parent to pull it off.  In a previous post, I linked to a list of Language Arts and math skills.  That same list of math skills might also be helpful for this purpose.  To see the list of math skills, click here and scroll down to the second page within the link.

Some of you won't believe me when I say this, "There are endless opportunities for math storytelling!"  Click here for a list of a dozen very broad categories to help jumpstart your thinking.  Take a picture of the list with your phone and keep it handy.  Pick a different category early each day and then keep a lookout for the opportunity to tell a math story.

I hope you find math storytelling to be helpful in keeping your child's math skills fresh.

Let's make s'more teachable moments, together.

Ron