melissa_hice

My daughter(8) asked me why I have a calculator in my purse. I told
her that I like to take it with me when I go shopping in case I need to
figure out the price of something that has a percent off. I tried to
explain to her that sometimes, stores will have something that is on
sale and there will be a sign that says, "Take an extra ___% off." I
told her I like to know what the new price will be before I buy it.

She asked what a percent was. I tried to explain but unfortunately, I
didn't do a good job of it. Any ideas of how to explain percents to an
8 year old?

Melissa

Sandra Dodd

She asked what a percent was. I tried to explain but unfortunately, I
didn't do a good job of it. Any ideas of how to explain percents to an
8 year old?

=================

how many out of each hundred

That's how I think of it. Linguistically. per (by) cent (hundred)

cent, century, centenarian, centurian, centennial, centigrade,
centimeter, percent, have to do with 100.

She probably knows the phrase "a hundred percent," so if that's 100
out of 100, then 50% is 50 out of 100, etc.



Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

donnakeeble

> She asked what a percent was. I tried to explain but unfortunately, I
> didn't do a good job of it. Any ideas of how to explain percents to an
> 8 year old?
>
> =================
>
> how many out of each hundred
>
> That's how I think of it. Linguistically. per (by) cent (hundred)
>
> cent, century, centenarian, centurian, centennial, centigrade,
> centimeter, percent, have to do with 100.
>
> She probably knows the phrase "a hundred percent," so if that's 100
> out of 100, then 50% is 50 out of 100, etc.
>


I'd add - it's the pieces that make up the whole thing. 100 pieces
make a whole or 100% - it ties well with dollars and pennies. At the
dollar store, 6% sales tax adds 6 more pieces (or pennies) to every
item. Or a 15% off sale takes away 15 pennies from every dollar.
Donna

melissa_hice

Thanks for the info. I did not know that percent meant "by
hundred." I also never really thought about the words century,
centennial, etc. That would actually be a very good thing for me to
investigate further for myself. I'm anxious to get started googling
this stuff! Off to get myself immersed in percents!

Melissa

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
>
> She asked what a percent was. I tried to explain but unfortunately,
I
> didn't do a good job of it. Any ideas of how to explain percents to
an
> 8 year old?
>
> =================
>
> how many out of each hundred
>
> That's how I think of it. Linguistically. per (by) cent (hundred)
>
> cent, century, centenarian, centurian, centennial, centigrade,
> centimeter, percent, have to do with 100.
>
> She probably knows the phrase "a hundred percent," so if that's
100
> out of 100, then 50% is 50 out of 100, etc.
>
>
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Sandra Dodd

-=-I also never really thought about the words century,
centennial, etc. That would actually be a very good thing for me to
investigate further for myself. I'm anxious to get started googling
this stuff!-=-

Once you start playing with etymology, you might find you can figure
out lots of things by looking at the words themselves.

http://sandradodd.com/etymology

Before you go there, though, see what you can figure out yourself
about what the names of the days of the week and the months mean. If
you know more than one European language,that might help. (Basque,
Welsh or whatever Lapplanders speak won't help.)



Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pamela Sorooshian

I had a book called "English from the Roots Up" - which is supposed to
be used to do lessons on Latin and Greek roots of English words. But
we played a game with it that was really fun and went on for many years.

I put a little magnetic white board on our refrigerator. I kept the
English from the Roots Up book on top of the fridge.
I'd write one of the roots on the white board. Like "chronos."

Then anyone passing by would, if they felt like it, write a word that
sounded like it was based on that root. Some of the words - chronic,
chronicle, synchronous.

After there were a bunch of words written there, or after a few days
or a week - whenever I next felt like it - I'd take down the book and
copy all the other words that the book listed that we hadn't thought
of and I'd write what the book said was the meaning. I'd leave that
there for a few days or so and then erase it and start over.

Once in a while there would happen to be a little meet-up in the
kitchen when more than one person would be thinking about it at the
same time and a discussion would ensue. A few times the words were
brought up in the car and talked about.

For years this just sort of mostly went on in the background. At some
time or another, my husband and all three kids participated and so did
friends who happened to be in the kitchen and see it.

It was a game and fun and sometimes weeks and weeks (months) went by
and nobody played, but other times it would fill up fast and I'd
change the words every few days.

-pam


On Mar 29, 2008, at 8:19 AM, Sandra Dodd wrote:

> Once you start playing with etymology, you might find you can figure
> out lots of things by looking at the words themselves.
>
> http://sandradodd.com/etymology
>
> Before you go there, though, see what you can figure out yourself
> about what the names of the days of the week and the months mean. If
> you know more than one European language,that might help. (Basque,
> Welsh or whatever Lapplanders speak won't help.)



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

We started out talking about percents with pizza and pie. (Food seems to
work well with getting math ideas into digestible portions (excuse the pun) for
us.) So, we got 50%, 25% and fractions, too. I thought thirds and sixths as
well as eighths were a little tough to transfer into percents for our 7 year
old, so we stuck with whole numbers. It got the idea across, though.

Peace,
De



**************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL
Home.
(http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15&ncid=aolhom00030000000001)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Joanna Murphy

Last night my son encountered 51 divided by 51 in a game he was playing online. I was
with him and read it out loud, and my daughter said, "Huh?." I replied, "If there were 51
kids and 51 dollars, how much money would each kid get?" She got that right away! Lol

We've started an allowance again after the thread that came up. Both kids are totally
ready for it now, so I'm so glad it came up here and I didn't continue to think they weren't
interested! We've had great fun with it. I think they had some fear that if they got an
allowance I wouldn't buy them anything anymore. That didn't come from me, but maybe a
tv show or something.....

Joanna

--- In [email protected], Sanguinegirl83@... wrote:
>
> We started out talking about percents with pizza and pie. (Food seems to
> work well with getting math ideas into digestible portions (excuse the pun) for
> us.) So, we got 50%, 25% and fractions, too. I thought thirds and sixths as
> well as eighths were a little tough to transfer into percents for our 7 year
> old, so we stuck with whole numbers. It got the idea across, though.
>
> Peace,
> De
>
>
>
> **************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL
> Home.
> (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?
video=15&ncid=aolhom00030000000001)
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

diana jenner

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:46 AM, <Sanguinegirl83@...> wrote:

> We started out talking about percents with pizza and pie. (Food seems to
>
> work well with getting math ideas into digestible portions (excuse the
> pun) for
> us.) So, we got 50%, 25% and fractions, too. I thought thirds and sixths
> as
> well as eighths were a little tough to transfer into percents for our 7
> year
> old, so we stuck with whole numbers. It got the idea across, though.
>
>
>


10% was our first introduction, as it's easy to grasp visually -- move the
decimal one spot to the left :) and viola, there's your discount! I would
sometimes do the math to give them the resulting net cost, though Hayden has
always had a natural knack for the rhythm of numbers, he does the most of
his own computing in his head. Either exact maniuplations for exacting
answers ($10/month = X/day) or he'll fearlessly estimate and round off (in
about X months I can have about enough for whatever cool thing I'm dreaming
of today).
The local sales tax was near 5% (in SD) and the kids could quickly figure
10% and divide it in half (50%!!) and know their tax debt. We really
impressed the gramma when Hayden asked the local tax rate while we were in
LA (9.5%) and he protested having to give away 10 cents for every dollar he
spent on vacation!! (aha! a "value of money" moment!) He was pretty excited
to know we live without those taxes now (and he's far more removed from
consequences of a state income tax than sales tax!)

We had a great many talks about angles and circles and pi and skirt making
and van+trailer manipulations and skateboarding tricks, as we drove across
the country last October... The shear winds had me thinking of lift/drag and
friction and all kinds of other miscellaneous engineering information that
was waiting for something relative to show up in my life :) to which it
could apply itself. I was so glad to have that moment to share these cool
concepts with Hayden; it's part of the whole Road Trip with Mama experience,
instead of the dry ol' algebra/geometry teacher who spit when he talked
::bg::
--
~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com


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