Introduction
Maths is everywhere and there are so many things you can do to help your child gain an understanding - even though they haven’t begun school yet.
It’s amazing how many day-to-day experiences involve mathematical skills that many of us wouldn’t even consider to be maths. So even if you think you aren’t great at maths you’ll still have lots to teach your pre-schooler.
How CBeebies can help
Many pre-school shows such as Tikkabilla, Tweenies, Chuggington (to name just a few) incorporate mathematical skills - whether it’s a counting rhyme, number story, shape sorting or looking at how things fit together.
Numberjacks - with its catchy tune and friendly-looking number characters that solve problems and puzzles – will certainly appeal to young children. Why not click through to the programme’s pages on the CBeebies website? There are some exciting games, make and colour activities and programme clips to try out.
How to make a magic moment
One great way to have fun and use lots of maths skills is by baking something together - perhaps a cake or some biscuits.
Your child can help find the right size tin to use (or count out the bun cases if you are baking some small cakes). They can look at packet shapes and the quantities inside and guessing how much you may need and then weigh out the ingredients properly. Plus they can measure using scales, spoons, cups and jugs and also look at the cooking temperature and time their creation(s) will take to bake. So many maths skills in one fun activity!
Other maths-related activities you might want to try include:
- Sorting out clothes to see which ones are the right size and which are too big or too small.
- Matching pairs of things: shoes, socks, gloves, etc.
- Using plastic tubs and ducks or small toys in the bath. Then you could count how many toys it takes to make the boat sink or drop some coins in the bath and see how many your child can find.
- Putting a toy clock next to a real clock. Tell your child that they can get up when the hands on the real clock match the hands on the toy clock. This can be a game played at any time of day – e.g. you could also tell your child that you will do an activity together, or they have to be ready to go out, at a certain time.
