Your child is beginning to develop an understanding of math—even before she can say number words out loud. Once she can say number words, she can begin to match the words to set size and then count the set. For example, “Look at the spoons. There are three! One, two, three.” You can help her do this by counting out loud together.

You can also help her understand that a number word stands for a specific amount. When waiting in line, say, “Let’s count the people in front of us. One, two, three. There are three people in front of us. Now it’s your turn. How many people are behind us?” If your child answers incorrectly, instead of sharing the correct answer, say, “How did you get your answer? Let’s check if that’s right. Can you think of another way to solve that problem? Let’s count together.”

Have you ever thought about how often you count, measure, estimate, and compare when you’re cooking? Measuring one cup of this and ½ cup of that teaches your child how to compare the relationship of parts to wholes.

Your kitchen is rich with fun and yummy ways your child can learn the basics, and here are some easy ways to start.

Preparing Food

• Ask your child to compare the sizes of measuring spoons. Use words like smallest, small, medium, big, bigger, and biggest to describe each spoon.
• Line up the fruits you’ll use for fruit salad from smallest to largest. Try starting with a blueberry and ending with a watermelon.

Your young child has a natural ability to understand shapes—but needs your help to learn what each one is called. So talk it up! Look around— you’ll find shapes everywhere. Describe the shapes of objects and what makes each one different. And encourage your child to use a finger to trace around the edges of different objects. Children learn best by touching objects of different shapes.

Here are a few examples:

• Circles are round with no corners. Look for circles printed on billboards and road signs. Encourage your child to use a finger to trace around the edges of plates and cups.

• Rectangles have four straight sides and four corners. The sides across from each other are the same length. Look for windows, doors, and flags. Trace the edges of envelopes and sheets of paper.
• Squares are a special type of rectangle—all four straight sides are the same length. Look for windows and signs that appear to be square. Help your child trace the edges of square floor tiles or square picture frames and count each side.
• Triangles have three straight sides and three angles. Look for them printed on billboards and yield signs. Cut used envelopes or cards from one corner to the opposite corner to make two triangles. Count the sides as your child traces the edges of each one.

Patterns are everywhere! You can give your child opportunities to create and play with them. After all, a pattern is as easy as something that repeats more than once—like red, blue, red, blue, red, blue. Thinking about patterns helps children make sense of math and helps them predict what will happen. After just a bit of practice, you’ll be amazed at how often your child will find patterns that you don’t even see!

In the Bedroom

• When folding laundry with your child, make a pattern with socks. Line them up like this: big, small, big, small, big, small. Then, have fun matching the pairs of socks together.
• Help your child lay out a pattern with her toys—a book, stuffed animal, block, book, stuffed animal, block, etc. Then count the number of toys all together and repeat the last number as you say, “So we have (total number of) toys on the floor.”

Here’s an easy way to think about introducing addition: group like things together, then add them up. Say, “Let's put all your red blocks in one pile and your blue ones in another. Now, let’s count how many blocks there are all together.” Be sure to use easy concepts and small numbers, and whenever possible, use familiar objects as examples rather than numbers. The playground is a perfect place to practice addition with these tips.

At the Playground

From the number of things to play on to the number of children playing, there are many ways to use math words when visiting the playground. Get started with these, then make up your own.

• Count how many big-kid swings you see, and how many little-kid swings. Then count the two groups of swings all together.
• If there are children on the swings, say, “There are five swings all together. And there are three children on the swings. How many swings don’t have children on them?”
• If you see people walking dogs, ask, “Are there more people or dogs?” After your child answers, ask, “How do you know?” “Yes, we can count to find out!”
• Count your steps as you walk from the bench to the swings. Then count your steps as you walk to something else. Which took more steps? Which distance is farther?