Koala Coach

Mother's Day Brunch, (or any time you find yourself around kids and toast,) is the perfect opportunity to sneak in geometry! Simply cutting up pieces of toast into polygons will not only preview material that will be learned in school, it will also encourage picky eaters to eat.

Are you making breakfast for mom in bed? A morning breakfast of french toast, or just toast at home or in a restaurant can be transformed into a fun math lesson.  

A polygon is a closed sided figure with straight lines that meet at vertices. Polygon is a fun word to to say. The concept can be taught to even the youngest child, or reinforced with an older child.

Preschool: Younger children can learn about polygons like triangles, squares and rectangles. Think about comparing and contrasting the number of sides and the number of angles. How is each shape the same? How is each shape different?

Elementary School: Older children can start thinking about polygons that have parallel lines. Parallel lines are always equidistant (same distance apart) and will never meet! Imagining that the lines on the opposite sides of the toast extend forever, across the table into the restaurant, out onto the street, even farther to the ocean, still farther to the next continent and on and on... is a fun way to think about parallel lines on a polygon that you are eating for brunch. 

Learning Encourages Eating: 

It’s helpful to have an easy going discussion about math concepts with big vocabulary and encourage your kids to eat at the same time. This isn’t just tasty geometry for three olds, it’s also encouraging a child's brains to perform the essential task for all learning: comparing and contrasting.

The Picky Eater and the Rhombus: 

All children are excited to learn about the world. Not all children are excited about eating. When a parent takes the stress out of eating and makes it about learning, the picky eater will happily eat. 

 "You just ate a rhombus!" "No mommy, I ate a square." "A square IS a rhombus!!! But a rhombus is not always a square.  You have super eating powers, you ate a square and a rhombus at the same time!"

I don’t expect kids to remember these facts or even totally understand them. However, one day when they get to fourth grade, they will be primed and ready to learn all about geometry.  And in the mean time this picky eater thought it was fun to eat all his polygons.

This didn’t take any additional time, and mom's deserve a mother's day brunch where their children are learning, growing and eating!