Introduce your child to math through every day conversation. Here are some ways to talk math while you work and play. Children learn by repetition. Sing. Talk. Play. Repeat. Make learning fun. They’ll want to do it again and again! Talk math. It’s a smart start.

Start at infancy.
Sing songs and repeat rhymes that use numbers.

Talk math.
Make comparisons such as “big” and “little,” “more” and “fewer.” “Heavy” and “light” introduce the concept of volume and mass. “Long” and “short” teach measurement.

Shop together.
Let your child help you at the grocery store. You can count the fruits and veggies together.

Play sorting games.
Put all the balls in one basket and the trucks in a box. Learning “same” and “different” is a math skill.

Do laundry.
Children learn about colors and sizes by sorting laundry with you.

Count it out.
Count out loud when serving snacks. Make comparisons such as, “you have more crackers than I do.”

Make cookies.
Your child will learn about measurement by counting eggs and cups of flour.

Add and subtract.
Count the birds in your yard. Talk about how the number changes when one flies away.

Keep time.
Use a timer, clock or stopwatch to measure how long the cookies bake.

Measure heights.
Use a tape measure or yardstick to compare your child’s height to your own. Make a game of measuring other things around the house.

What is your child learning?

• Math concepts
• How to classify objects by shape or color
• How numbers relate to his world
• About order and sequence
• Awareness of measurement and volume
• Understands units of measure
• Recognizes value of fractions

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