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Math for the Young

I was inspired recently to write this post while playing for several hours with my five year old and some Unifix Cubes. He and I had a grand time making patterns, counting, and measuring. It made me realize again how much math we can do while we play and how important playful math is to young, aspiring mathematicians.

Generally speaking there are some widely accepted categories of concepts our children need to have in order to begin a solid foundation in math. They are Numbers & Number Sense, Patterns & Classification, Computation, Measurement, and Geometry.

You can play at any one of those concepts with a good set of counters. Another name widely used for counters is manipulatives. I really like the Unifix Cubes because they attach to each other nicely in only one direction. However, any counter will do- pennies, buttons, bears, legos, duplos (we used to use these a lot). So, if your budget is limited, dig in to the toys already in your house and see what there is to play math.

So, you have your counters and you have your young student, but you aren’t sure about how to play? Here are a few ideas:

Numbers and Number Sense: this category includes counting and one to one correspondence along with identifying sets of numbers. I like to use puzzles to teach counting- either the number match kind or the number train type. Almost all of my kids learned to count to twenty with our number train puzzle. There are so many opportunities for asking questions and counting with a good puzzle. Board games are another way to help kids learn counting. Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, and the Eric Carle games are good games to start with. Dominoes are a great tool for identifying sets of numbers and number matching. Kids love to play games and count.

Patterns & Classification: This category includes collecting like items, sorting, and patterning. I like to have my kids sort buttons into muffin tins. You can sort by color, size or texture and older kids can do more complicated sorting. Establishing patterns is important and you can do this using more formal products or you can make your own. With the Unifix Cubes or duplos you can establish a pattern and see if your student can repeat it. Funtastic Frogs have patterning cards and we’ve all seen bears or dinosaurs with patterning cards.

Computation: The beginnings of math equations- addition and subtraction is in this category. Counters that connect are a fun way to talk about adding and taking away items.

Measurement: Here we are talking about length, volume, time, etc. You can introduce measuring tools and use non-standard forms of measurement with young children. We used long towers of Unifix cubes to do some measuring and we counted the squares for quantifying our answers. Tape measures are a great way to practice counting and measuring themselves against other objects helps for comparison.

Geometry: shape math is what geometry is all about. Identifying and classifying shapes with puzzles, pictures, and shape hunts is always fun.

For readers who don’t want to go it on their own, here is a list of resources you can use with your young math students.

Family Math for Young Children from the Lawrence Hall of Science
Family Math from the Lawrence Hall of Science
Math Play by Williamson Little Hands Series
Play and Find Out about Math by Janice VanCleave
Games for Math by Peggy Kaye
Games for Learning by Peggy Kaye

No matter what you choose to use for math with young children or how you want to go about it, the most important thing is to get down and play! You’d be surprised how much fun preschool and Kindergarten math can be without a workbook and it helps to get kids off to a good start in math skills through play.

Heather is a homeschooling mom of four kids ranging from middle school to preschool and wife to a handsome chemical engineer. Before raising a family, she taught middle school science (with a BS in biological sciences) and has a masters degree in curriculum and instruction secondary education. Now teaching at home means the chance to provide the extraordinary for her children. She’s been homeschooling five years and you can read about those adventures on her blog, Blog She Wrote.