Making Maths Fun, Practical and Playful

Young children are naturally curious and enjoy exploring and playing. When they are under five, their brains are rapidly growing and so they have the capacity to absorb lots of information and knowledge.

Incorporating maths into everyday play and learning is fun for children and not as difficult as some parents think.

Here are a few ideas:

* Sing number songs like 'One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive.' Read and point out numbers in books. Point out numbers on busses or house numbers.

* Sort washing into large, medium and small garments. Use mathematical vocabulary such as large, larger largest, small, smallest, smaller etc and encourage your little one to use this vocabulary.

* Who is the tallest, shortest person in the family? Can your little one draw the family showing the size differences?

* Sort socks into pairs: the correct colours , correct patterns.

* Count out objects in front of your little one. How many eggs do we have? Count the stairs as you climb up and down. I've cut your sandwich into three, one, two three. Count and point as you say each number. Encourage your little one the point and count items that they like such as cars, dinosaurs, beads as well as everyday objects such as pasta, buttons and biscuits.

* Matching amounts to numbers: role a dice, number four, can you count out four Smarties? * Number Scavenger hunts, one leaf, two cones, three stones etc.

* Share sweets between siblings/friends, one for you , one for me, how many have we all got? Have we all got the same?

* Shop roleplay: everyday items with a price tag. Can they read the tag? Can they add amounts together? Can they read the numbers on the coins?

Here are a few ideas from the website:

Use whatever items you have around the home, ask lots of questions, can they explain why they think that. Make it fun by reversing your roles - let your little one do some teaching and of course get the answers wrong so the little one has the opportunity to correct you.

Maths is all around us, make the most of every opportunity, but make it fun!

Mrs H