You may read to your child before bed every night, but have you ever thought about playing with math problems before bed? Laura Bilodeau Overdeck has created Bedtime Math, which uses current events and everyday occurrences to make math fun and relevant to your life. “Our mission is simple: to make math a fun, natural part of kids’ everyday lives, just like the bedtime story,” writes Overdeck. The questions are not a “test.” The goal is to have an entertaining conversation as your child comes up with an answer. Each day’s entry includes a paragraph of information followed by math exercises for three different age groups: preschool, K-2nd grade and 2nd grade and up. The February 3 entry offers math problems based on the Super Bowl. The February 4 entry explains why a skunk smells bad and presents a recipe for creating a mixture that smells like a skunk’s spray. The website includes a parents’ guide and links to news articles on the importance of math in our lives.

Now, I should probably state here that I personally enjoyed math as a kid. I think of math problems as fun puzzles, but it never occurred to me to work math puzzles with my kids. I like the idea of playing with numbers before bed. Why not visit Bedtime Math and discover how much fun math can be? And of course, for more fun with numbers, you can check out some math-themed books for kids from your friendly neighborhood library!