Teaching math skills

I always heard and still hear why do I have to learn this. Well today I woke up with a craving for cookies and a bright idea. Both girls need some work with multiying and dividing. So in my craving for homemade cookies, I thought of a great way to incorporate math into a real life scenario. 

First the grocery shopping. 

I made a list of everything that we needed. I gave Tracey the list and for each item she had to compare prices and pick the cheapest item. Then she had to keep a running tab of everything that we had spent. What really gave her a challenge was certain things had mulitiples. Ex 2 gallons of milk. So that required her to multiply right there in the middle of the store. There weren't any calculators. Just a piece of paper and a pen. As we walked to the checkout I asked how confident she was with her answer and she proved to me that she could do it. Her total was just a penny off. Which for having distractions and doing the math quickly I couldn't complain. 

Second the cookies 

I helped Meagan with the cookie process. This was a two part lesson for her. She is my little energizer bunny who has a difficult time listening. Plus they are starting division in school. I got all of the ingredients out and set them on the table. I know he recipe by heart and gave her limited measuring cups. Ex. I only let her use 1/2 and 1/4 cup to measure 1 cup total. It worked out well. It gave individual attention to each kid and helped them with some skills. 

My methods are off the wall but I'm teaching them lessons that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.