While attending a child care center, toddlers get their first introductions to subjects they'll eventually explore in greater depth once they start preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school. Introducing your children to basic mathematical concepts can provide them with a head start that helps them excel throughout their academic careers. Here are a few ways you can help your kids develop early math skills.

How Can You Introduce Children to Math Early?

1. Count Everyday Objects

Counting numbers from one to ten can help small children learn how to recognize integers and make it easier for them to complete basic addition and subtraction problems. You can teach your toddlers numbers by counting items found in your usual routine, such as fruit at the grocery store, cars on the roads, or books on shelves in your home. Counting these familiar objects may make math feel less abstract for children, which can help them better understand numbers. It can also help them begin to recognize the importance and relevance of math in their everyday lives.

2. Bake Together

Baking with kids is a fun family pastime that can introduce toddlers to fundamental math concepts and allow them to enjoy delicious treats afterward. Consider teaching your kids how to use cups and spoons to add the appropriate amounts of flour, sugar, and baking powder to mixing bowls, which can help them develop an understanding of simple measurements. Your kids can also get a better sense of time while waiting for cookies, cakes, and brownies to bake. Try teaching them about fractions by cutting cookies or cakes into halves, quarters, and eighths after they come out of the oven.

3. Play Games

Children often learn best by playing. Engaging in fun math activities can help your kids feel more engaged with new concepts and teach them to look forward to learning more. For example, board games such as Chutes and Ladders® and Hi-Ho! Cherry-O® can teach them how to count numbers and do basic addition before they enter preschool.

You can help your child get a better sense of space and shapes by completing puzzles together. Try creating a mathematical scavenger hunt that includes prompts asking your toddlers to locate or retrieve objects in certain shapes, sizes, and quantities throughout your home. An abacus—a simple counting device that consists of a frame with rows of colorful beads on horizontal wires—can serve as a fun toy that helps kids get extra practice with counting, addition, and subtraction as they slide the beads left and right. 

Help your toddlers develop fundamental math skills by enrolling them at Merry Manor School of Childhood in Lincoln, NE. With 70 years of combined experience, this child care center proudly offers stimulating and educational preschool and after-school programs to children from 6 weeks to 13 years of age. Call (402) 466-2215 to sign up your child for classes, or visit the website to learn more about their enriching curriculum.