Maths at home

Parents can support children with their mathematical development at home. There are plenty of fun ways to learn maths.

It is important when teaching children maths to start with the basics. Children need to learn the value of numbers, learning that 2 is 2 things such as our feet or our hands and that 5 is 5 chairs or 5 sweets. You can then explore that further, comparing the quantities of different groups of objects, talking about more and less. Doing this with every day objects can strengthen children's knowledge.

Comparing how many carrots mummy has on her plate to how many your child has can work maths and counting into every day activities. Children can then learn what happens when something is added or taken away.

Try counting a variety of things such as jumps, steps, claps, seats on the bus etc so that children learn that it's not just objects that can be counted.

All these basics should come before learning numerals. A number 5 is just a picture if you don't understand what it represents. That it means 5 toys or 5 people. Children also need to understand that 5 can be 3 cars and 2 cars. It can be 4 socks and 1 sock. This gives children some solid understanding of numbers before they begin to associate numerals with them.

Here are some ideas of fun activities you can try at home to support children with their mathematical development at home:

 

Choose a favourite toy. Can you put ‘Spiderman’ under your bed, can you put ‘Spiderman’ on the box (use positional language in, on, under, next to, behind, in front)

 

Set up a shop. Make price tags for the items for sale (1p - 5p). Use pennies to buy the toys

Comparing quantities. eg use farm animals, make 2 fields of animals, which field has more animals? Can you make the fields have the same number of animals?

 

Count the stairs as you go up to bed

Make a height chart. Measure all members of the family. Use language such as tall, short.

Go shopping, give your child a shopping list eg 3 apples, 2 pears, 5 yoghurts  (you may need pictures on the list too)

Cooking / baking together - measure out the ingredients, count spoonful's.

 

Share stories that relate to maths ie Kippers Toy Box, The Great Pet Sale, The Door Bell Rang

 

Collect some sticks, stones, shells - can you make a pattern

 

Label boxes 1,2,3,4,5 - Can you put the correct number of objects in the box ie 3 spoons in box 3

 

Go on a number hunt. Look for and talk about numbers in the environment ie door numbers, car registration plates, shops, clocks, signs etc

 

 

If you would like a leaflet of Maths ideas that you can tick off as you go, please see Amanda.