@SMH: Ten Top Tips to Foster your preschool child's love for Maths

The Sydney Morning Herald has published an article on the importance of Mathematics for Preschool aged children. The key here I believe is that we need to be sending our youngsters to a proper preschool with a preschool program and a trained teacher rather than hoping that the long day care, which has become all to prevalent 'won't do any harm'.

Really, what do we want for our children - not any harm - or do we want them to flourish? I know what I want for my children, 3 (3 day preschool) and 5 (Year 1).

Rather than "Mathematics", engaging in Numeracy is actually explained in the article as what we need to be encouraging for our youngsters. Getting that number sense.

Here are the ten tips from SMH:

• Observe numbers and shapes in everyday situations: on street signs, in the park, at the supermarket. How many cars can you see? Are there more or fewer than before?
• Count steps as you're going up stairs.
• Play outside with water or sand. Use scales and/or measuring containers of different sizes.
• Play with blocks and use the opportunity to point out the sizes and shapes, the number or any patterns. Problem-solving can also be introduced through blocks by identifying the best ways to stop towers from toppling. 
• Bath time offers the opportunity to observe volume and metrics using cups filled with water.
• Sorting the laundry is a chance to ask your toddler to help you sort socks into pairs, or count the number of T-shirts. Which pile of clothes is the tallest? Which is the shortest?
• When making lunch discuss with your child as you cut a sandwich into halves, quarters or thirds. How many pieces do you have now?
• Do a puzzle and point out sizes, shapes and colours. Where are the corners? How many are there?
• Use a tape measure to find a child's height. How does their height compare with other members of the family? Who is the tallest and who is the shortest in the family?
• Bake together. What ingredients need to be measured; what is the order of ingredients? How many cupcakes are there? Should we make fewer large ones or more small ones?

It is important with all of these wonderful suggestions, that we don't get to the point of seeing our children as 'a project' and we need to subtly make numeracy a part of their lives without 'doing an algebra lesson' as the article points out.


For the full article on SMH: Click Here