Add math to EVERYTHING!
Hold up… if your first thought is ‘Um, not DOING math ’cause I can’t do math,’ then you’re the perfect person for this tip. You’re probably thinking, how can I get my child to love doing their math activities, when I HATE doing math myself?! The reality is that so many of us (myself included!) think that math is some kind of foreign language that we just don’t get. But here’s the reality: we are ALL math people. Why? Because we ALL use math in our activities throughout the day:
Comparing sizes and amounts.
Calculating how much change to give to the cashier.
Measuring ingredients when we cook.
Figuring out how much time to set aside to get a task done.
See… you’re a math person!
How we set up our kids to struggle with math
Here’s what a lot of us do: we have our own ‘math baggage’ – our not so pleasant memories of learning about math in school – and we bring that to our children. We say things like – oh, I can’t do that because I don’t have a math brain or we give them a worksheet or app to play with and call that ‘math time.’ What we are signaling to them is that math is something special we do at special times (mostly related to school) and that only people with special skills can do it.
Perfect example: as I was searching for images to include with this post, I did a search for ‘math and kids’ and what comes up are a bunch of images of kids in schools, using computers, robots, or worksheets. This perspective of what math looks like is everywhere!
Now – here’s why this sets up our kids for disappointment and even failure down the road. If you go into math thinking this, what happens when it gets hard? Well, you do what a lot of us do: you think, ‘of course I can’t do it. I’m NOT a MATH PERSON!’ – and you give up. Isolate math like this and you are setting up your child to do the same!
Easy activities that build a positive math mindset
Instead of siphoning off math into its ‘special’ place, simply infuse it into EVERYTHING you do when you are with your kids. Try using these simple math activities with your preschoolers:
- Count… everything. The eggs you take out of the refrigerator (I need 1, 2, 3 – 3 Eggs!). The steps you take up the staircase (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – 5 steps up!) and then go backwards when you go down them (5, 4, 3, 2, 1!). The shoes and socks you put on your feet (1, 2 shoes and 1, 2 socks on my feet!) This is about YOU doing the counting, not them – don’t make it a quiz. The goal is to just show them how we counting works in our everyday activities.
- Make Comparisons. It might not seem like it, but making comparisons is a part of math. When you figure out what is smaller/bigger, taller/shorter, hotter/colder, farther/closer you’re using some kind of system of measurement. Get your child involved in these calculations as you go about your routine activities – and even have them make predictions and then test their theories. (Examples – how many steps do you think it will take for us to get to the end of the block? Do you think it is warmer or colder than yesterday?)
- Play with math & music. Counting beats and making rhythms is really just making patterns – which is, you guessed it, a math concept. Clap to the beats in the songs you are listening to – OR create your own musical patterns with instruments or even just your body (claps, stomps, jumps work great).
- Look for shapes around you. There are shapes all around us – encourage your child to find them! And you can go one step farther by having your child explain to you why that shape is a triangle or rectangle. (And if you forget your basic shapes, here’s a handy guide you can use!)
Making your math activities fun – and not a ‘lesson’
There are tons of workbooks or apps available that promise to teach your child basic math skills. And you can find a zillion math activities for preschoolers on social media – but you usually need a bucket full of craft supplies at the ready to do them. There’s nothing really wrong with these methods