Curriculum / Conceptual Mathematics / module 4

Shop Math: Word Problems from Real Life

By OSH Founding Team✓ Verified by OSH Review Panel

Two-step word problems built from the family's actual shopping, so mathematics is a tool for daily life rather than a worksheet trap.

Parent guide (what to say and do)

Before any shopping trip, give the child the list and rough prices: 'Bread is 120, eggs are 30 each and we need 6. What will we pay?' Work it aloud together on paper. At the shop, the child checks the prediction against reality and investigates any difference. Graduate to: 'We have 500. What can we afford from this list?' which is budgeting, algebra, and life in one question.

Learning material

Problem builder templates using local prices (platform library)

Practical exercises and activities

Weekly: shopping prediction and check. Game: run a pretend shop at home where the child is the cashier making change. Challenge: plan a family tea within a fixed budget, including quantities.

Materials required

Paper, pencil, and a real shopping trip.

Assessment checkpoints

Child solves a two-step money problem from a real trip without prompting and catches a deliberate pricing mistake in a staged problem.

Learn with AI

Ready-made prompts for this module. Copy one into your AI assistant and it becomes a patient tutor that follows the OSH method: no lecturing, no rote learning, hands-on activities included.

For the student

A tutor that teaches this module step by step, asks questions, and never just gives answers.

For the parent or teacher

A coach that helps you prepare, deliver, and troubleshoot this lesson.

How to set this up in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude

ChatGPT: Open ChatGPT → press your profile → My GPTs → Create a GPT → paste the prompt into Instructions → name it after the module → save for repeated lessons. Or simply paste the prompt at the start of a new chat.

Gemini: Open Gemini → Gems panel → New Gem → paste the prompt into the instructions box → name it after the module → save. The Gem stays available for every study session.

Claude: Open Claude → create a Project (or a Skill in Claude Code) → paste the prompt into the project instructions → every conversation in that project becomes a tutoring session for this module.

Safety note: children under 13 should use AI assistants together with a parent, and account age rules of each platform apply.

This module is part of the open OSH curriculum, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. Print it, adapt it, share it.