Missions Math
We have been studying money so to put it into practice I decided it was time to see how much money Gess has saved up in her missions jar. Gess made her jar a few years ago and started saving up money to buy a goat for people who were hungry. We started with buying a goat because it did more than feed a family for one meal. It gave them milk for many meals among other means of sustaining them. We then purchased some ducks and water filters as other ways to help the needy. Each time she saves up money in her jar she chooses where she wants it to go.
This time after we counted the money in her jar I asked her what mission she wanted to support. She enthusiastically said "the Sudan!" I am not sure exactly what she knows about that region since we haven't studied it recently but it doesn't really matter. If that is where her heart was, that is where we gave. Well, sort of. As a Baptist who is familiar with how their charities work, I tend to favor supporting Baptist Global Response to support hunger needs. While they didn't have a Sudan specific hunger program, they did have an African Famine Relief which included areas of Sudan. One of the great things about BGR is that because they are smaller than other ministries they try to hit areas that don't seem to get as much attention. So while it may not be an area that tugs at our heart strings because we hear about it on the news, it will certainly be an area where people are still hungry and in need!
So now for the math. How much will Gesserine be able to give to African famine relief? For that answer we had a lot of change to count!
The first thing I had her do was to sort the coins. Then we started stacking and counting them. We stacked the pennies in groups of tens then counted by ten. The stack process was also great physical therapy. Gess kept saying "I'm not very good at stacking" which I said was all the more reason she should practice!
So after stacking pennies and counting by tens, counting nickels by fives, dimes in stacks of ten, and quarters in stacks of four we came up with our problem. She then used the calculator to find out that she had $9.38.
We then figured out how much mom and dad would have to pitch in to make it an even $10.00 and logged on to visit the BGR website to make her donation. She was thrilled to be a part of missions in her own way and I was thrilled to see how good she is getting at counting coins. She is still a long way from doing it alone as she would have miscounted in several piles but the concept is there and she is learning. She just gets ahead of herself sometimes.
It's always more fun when you take math and learn it in a way that is practical. I doubt Gess even realized it was "school." She was just curious to find out how much she had saved. She had emptied her jar around Christmas time so for 2 months so having close to ten dollars in was pretty good. Way to go Gess!
This time after we counted the money in her jar I asked her what mission she wanted to support. She enthusiastically said "the Sudan!" I am not sure exactly what she knows about that region since we haven't studied it recently but it doesn't really matter. If that is where her heart was, that is where we gave. Well, sort of. As a Baptist who is familiar with how their charities work, I tend to favor supporting Baptist Global Response to support hunger needs. While they didn't have a Sudan specific hunger program, they did have an African Famine Relief which included areas of Sudan. One of the great things about BGR is that because they are smaller than other ministries they try to hit areas that don't seem to get as much attention. So while it may not be an area that tugs at our heart strings because we hear about it on the news, it will certainly be an area where people are still hungry and in need!
So now for the math. How much will Gesserine be able to give to African famine relief? For that answer we had a lot of change to count!
The first thing I had her do was to sort the coins. Then we started stacking and counting them. We stacked the pennies in groups of tens then counted by ten. The stack process was also great physical therapy. Gess kept saying "I'm not very good at stacking" which I said was all the more reason she should practice!
So after stacking pennies and counting by tens, counting nickels by fives, dimes in stacks of ten, and quarters in stacks of four we came up with our problem. She then used the calculator to find out that she had $9.38.
We then figured out how much mom and dad would have to pitch in to make it an even $10.00 and logged on to visit the BGR website to make her donation. She was thrilled to be a part of missions in her own way and I was thrilled to see how good she is getting at counting coins. She is still a long way from doing it alone as she would have miscounted in several piles but the concept is there and she is learning. She just gets ahead of herself sometimes.
It's always more fun when you take math and learn it in a way that is practical. I doubt Gess even realized it was "school." She was just curious to find out how much she had saved. She had emptied her jar around Christmas time so for 2 months so having close to ten dollars in was pretty good. Way to go Gess!
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