Homeschool Math Blog

Are you perhaps doing any car trips this summer? Do you realize what a great opportunity it is to teach some real-life math to your children? They need to learn how to calculate the cost of a trip, based on the miles driven, the gas mileage of the car, and the price of gasoline. So today I want to highlight something sent to me by a fellow homeschooling mom, visitor to my site. She uses math a lot within real-life situations, and recently made a geography-math worksheet for her daughter about calculating the length and cost of a trip their grandparents were doing. She allowed me to share that worksheet WITH YOU... so here it is (MS Word 7) and here (Word 6). Right-click to save. See also a travel distance calculator to help you figure out distances. I quote: " It's funny, but even with all the resources we currently have on hand, I find that we spend more time on real-life math (such as calculating tip when we eat out). In fact, I just created a "worksheet" (not ...

Today I just stumbled upon two sources discussing the price of gas in a comparative sense; one was a line graph comparing it to the past , the other was a world-wide comparison . Both were interesting; and a resourceful teacher can now make all kinds of problems based on the data. First based on the list of gas prices in various countries , for example these come to mind. (And I'm just giving you ideas for a lesson on gasoline lesson; I'm not providing answers but if some of you want to, feel free to comment.) Approximately how many-fold is the price of gas in Bosnia-Herzegovina as it is in the USA? In Egypt? In Venezuela? If your mileage is 25 miles per gallon, find the price of driving a 120-mile trip in Germany and in the USA. Looking at the inflation adjusted gas price in 2008 dollars now . Just reading the graph: When was the price of gas at its lowest? At its highest? How much was it? Find the price of gas (approximately) in 1930, 1960, and 1990 by reading the graph. If ...