Give your child frequent opportunities to estimate. You can do this by using examples in daily life or by asking questions that allow him to estimate the answer. Encourage him to check his guess by working through the problem or by comparing a “real-life” answer to his guess.

Here are some examples of estimation challenges you can give your child. See if you can come up with others.

• “How many people are sitting in the first three rows?”

• “If we drink two cups of coffee a day and each container of coffee makes 50 cups, how many containers of coffee would we have to buy in a year?” (Answer: 15)

• “We’re going 30 miles an hour. Grandma lives 5 miles away. How long will it take us to get to her house?” (Answer: 10 minutes)

• “If you get $20 every time you rake a yard, how many yards would you have to rake to earn $10,000?” (Answer: 500)
  

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