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One Foot In Front of The Other

Make a "foot-long" ruler by creating a cardboard cutout of your kid's foot.
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How long is the couch? What's the distance between your child's bed and the toilet? Encourage your child to cruise the house, measuring things, with his own personal foot ruler.
Your kid's foot: A.k.a., "the ruler."
Cardboard: Use the back of an empty cereal box.
Pen: To trace the foot.
Scissors: To cut out the foot.
Tracer and cutter: That's you and your kid!
Things to measure: This can be anything from a chair to a raisin to dad's leg.
Masking tape (optional)
1 To create a "foot"-long ruler, have your kid stand on a piece of cardboard.

2 Trace his foot with a pen.

3 Have him (or help him) cut it out.

4 If he's curious, you can measure his foot against a real ruler to see how many inches long his foot is.

5 When he has his ruler in hand, encourage him to go around the house and measure everything in sight. This is great practice for his measuring and counting skills.

6 Ask him what he thinks is bigger, the TV or daddy's shoe? Get him to guess how many "feet" long he thinks the sofa will be, and then help him measure it. You may want to bring along a piece of masking tape if he's measuring something big so that you can mark his spot when he moves the "ruler." It'll make things a lot easier, which is always a definite plus. Life is tough enough.

7 Trace your own foot, your partner's foot, a sibling's foot and have your child compare the distances. The TV is 23 "kid feet" away from the couch, but only eight "dad feet." (Maybe that's a good reason for dad to turn it on from now on!)

Your curious kid may ask you why a foot measurement is called a "foot." Here's the answer: It is believed that the original "foot" was based on the length of a man's foot. Some say it was based on King Henry I's 12-inch foot, but records show that the term "foot" was in use for nearly a century before he was born. The average European man's foot is only about 9.4 inches long. There is one theory that supposes the 12-inch foot is based on an average man's foot when he is wearing shoes, but we still kinda like the King Henry version of the story better.

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