"Birthday Math" Makes Calculating Fun

Your child may balk at flashcards and wave away worksheets, but here's a fun way to get kids calculating without even realizing they're learning. Introduce your child to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and show her how to look up her favorite TV and movie stars. Each entry has a birthdate for the celebrity, and your child will probably be motivated to do some mental subtraction and figure out the star's age. He may be amazed to find out that the actors who play teens on his favorite shows are actually in their 20s, and follow link after link in show listings to find out about more stars and their ages. Remembering all those birthdates and ages, as fans will do, can also give a boost memorization skills; if kids are going to be fascinated by young celebrities, you might as well get some good out of it.