Institutional preschool & K12 schooling have become so prevalent that mothers have come to believe it’s necessary to have a “curriculum” for everything. But the reality is, most basic math can be learned and taught casually, through everyday activities, because we use it for everyday activities! Here are some fun and simple number activities to build numeracy in your preschoolers through play and everyday life.

Counting

You can teach your child numbers with whatever you already have around the house.  The first step is to teach him to count (usually starting with counting to 10).  This is easy: just count with him.  When you have to count something (cups of flour for a recipe, cans of beans going into the pantry, etc.), count it out loud so he can hear.

One-to-One Correspondence

The next step is “one-to-one correspondence.” This means that the child knows that one number goes with one thing.  You probably have noticed that very young children “just happen” to be counting at the same time they’re pointing to things; their words don’t match their actions.  That’s because they haven’t learned this concept yet.  To start, just count and point.  After a while, you can help the child count — his toys, pennies, fingers, drawers, etc.  Hold his hand and guide him in pointing to each item in turn as you say the numbers out loud together.

Subitizing

I also wanted Ariel to learn number recognition — recognition of the number of items, not the numerals.  We worked on recognizing what constitutes two fingers.  She would hold up two fingers and I would praise her, then ask her if she could show me a different two fingers.  If she got it right, I’d ask her to show me another set of two fingers.  If not, I’d just point out how many fingers she was holding up, count them for her (so she’d know I wasn’t just making it up!), and we’d move on.  She doesn’t readily recognize large numbers yet, but some of the smallest numbers, she does.

Numerals

Numeral recognition.  There are a number (no pun intended!) of ways you can teach these.  Point out numbers around you — on clocks, hymnbooks, calendars, etc.  Try to concentrate on one at a time, and point to the digit while telling the child what number it represents.  After a while, you can starting asking him to tell you what the number is.  If he doesn’t know, don’t press him; he’ll get it soon enough.

Uno

One fun tool for teaching numbers is a deck of Uno cards.  Remove all the “special” cards — skips, wildcards, etc. — so you only have the number cards.  These are particularly handy because they run 0-9, rather than 1-10 plus face cards like a standard deck of cards.  You can use these for flashcards.  Or, you can actually play the game, if your child also knows his basic colors.  The first time we tried this, Ariel actually won most hands!  If the child doesn’t know the numbers yet, he will need some help, but he can learn that either the color or the number needs to match.  It helps to say the number out loud every time you play a card, so the child begins to recognize them.

Have fun!  And remember that, however long it takes, your child will eventually know his numbers. 🙂