While the children are home for the holidays, there are many ways to help reinforce math concepts. Here are a few I use:
* Cooking- you can reinforce fractions and measurement. Discuss how many cups are in a pint, how many pints in a quart,etc. Even young children can meausre a half of a cup for you!
* As you are driving- teach your child rate by pointing out speed limit signs. Explain that 50 mph means that you would actually travel about 50 miles in an hour.
* Money- Using money is a great way to teach fractions and percent.
Since there are four quarters in a dollar, then one quarter is 1/4 or 25%, two quarters is 1/2 or 50%.
* Allowance- When children are given an allowance for doing developmentally appropriate chores, this gives parents an opportunity to teach them about money management. You could have three containers labled save, give, spend. You can teach them to save 10%, give 10%, and spend the rest (or however you chose to do this). It teaches money management as well as fractions and percent.

Math can be fun when we incorporate it early and help children see the need for it.