Easy Math Ideas

*Remember: The best play is child-led, both individually and in social settings.  The following activity ideas are intended to bring awareness of the skills children develop through play, not to replace free-play or meaningful, genuine adult-child interactions*

Math doesn't require anything fancy.  You can incorporate math by counting objects, talking to your kiddo about concepts like more or less, and bigger or smaller.  Find shapes and colors in your home or community.  Teach one-to-one correspondence by having your child set the dinner table.  Use blocks to create patterns.  Play number games and sing songs such as 5 Little Monkeys.

Number recognition and counting doesn't have to look this organized.  Write numbers on a piece of paper and give your kiddo any objects you can find, beans, pennies, buttons, etc.

Again, cooking is an excellent math activity.  Measuring, counting, fractions, so many skills!

No time to cook?  No problem, give kiddos real measuring tools to play with.

Play with patterns!  Use socks, fabric scraps, random wrapping paper scraps.  You have something laying around!

Matching and sorting is a preschooler's favorite.  Yes, sorting laundry and matching socks count!