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Math
Begins With Your Toddlers....
What
Most Homeschool Parents Do Naturally is Setting the Stage
For
Future Success in Math.
 Most homeschooling families
understand that homeschooling does not have to begin in
kindergarten. In fact, most of us are guilty of starting our
children a little too young. However, setting the stage for
future home school success in reading and math begins as early
as birth when we begin to interact with our children—consistent
chatter, reading books, counting, playing, coloring, and
building together… these are all contributions to the future
success of your kids.
And math is a biggie! How can we, as home school parents of
young children begin to set the stage for math success without a
formal math course?
Guess what! It is easy! Math is all around us and is a part of
our everyday home life even if we never pick up a pencil to
solve a math problem. And finding ways to connect our children’s
everyday learning experiences to the principles of math can give
them a huge jump on vital math skills and can be the beginning
of your home school program.
Incorporating math into a daily learning experience can also
create a much more positive attitude when it comes to the study
of math—which in turn will definitely make homeschooling easier!
How can you encourage this connection?
Your youngest children can begin to make these connections
through children’s stories. Find books that contain numbers in
the title or that require your child to count as they read with
you. Look for stories that include the concepts of ordering,
relationships, and patterns. Books like, The Three Little Pigs,
The Very Busy Spider, or Make Way for Ducklings provide
opportunities for counting, for determining patterns, and/or
evaluating relationships. Areas that homeschooling parents love!
But don’t just dive in! Take a moment to give your child the
opportunity to look through the book before you read it. Ask her
what she thinks it is about and what she thinks will happen in
the story. Find pictures that can be counted or patterns that
she can point out as she pages through the story.
After she has had time to give you her thoughts on the book,
then read it aloud with lots of expression, drama and
enthusiasm. Try not to allow her to stop you as you read.
Instead, wait until you have read the entire story before
talking about it.
After the story, build thinking skills by taking the time to
have her connect the story to her own experiences. For instance,
in Make Way for Ducklings my daughter always connected our
search for a new home with the dilemma the characters were
facing. She would talk about all of the houses we went through,
all of the special rooms she liked, and all of the times we
decided it just wasn’t the right home for our family.
Through that connection, she can analyze why each place wasn’t
just right for the ducklings. She is building
thinking-analytical skills! And thinking skills are valuable
math skills!
Another great way to set the stage for math is to spend time
building with blocks and playing with other manipulative type of
toys. My children love to sort and will find ways to sort
objects by color, by size, by shape, and by family. We use
colored bears, a set of little animals, shapes of all sizes and
colors and, of course, legos and blocks.
For my girls, a set of ELLO blocks are a real treat. We can
spend hours creating little houses, cars, people, benches,
chairs, etc. with the various shapes and pieces of their Ello
sets. I can even get into this activity, which of course makes
it more fun for them and a great break for a homeschooling
family when it is too ugly to go outside.
There are so many different kinds of building sets out there
now, that I am sure you will have one in your home. Pull it out
and use it in various ways. Have your children sort by color or
shape, create patterns or find logical ways to build specific
creations.
Take the time to compare your creations. “Which building is
taller? Why? Which color pile is bigger? How do you know?” This
kind of play is setting the stage for success in sequencing,
patterning, logic and therefore, math.
Homeschooling is not quite complete without time in the kitchen!
Get your children involved in cooking and baking. Using
measuring cups and spoons is a lot of fun for kids. And they are
learning as they work with you. Boys love this as much as
girls—so don’t hesitate to include your home schooled boys.
Another fun math lesson is to demonstrate the different sizes of
measuring cups. Have them set a few glasses side-by-side, fill
up different measuring cups and pour each in a different glass.
Then point out the difference. Give them the freedom to
experiment with this. You may end up with water all over the
place, but they are developing the foundation for another math
skill—measurement.
And as often as children are moving, ask them to count. Count up
and down the stairs, count hops across the hopscotch board,
count the number of bounces of a basketball, count their steps
as they head out to the car. Count the number of home school
parents you encounter in a meeting or on a field trip, count the
other homeschooling children . . .
I had an interesting experience with counting with my first
child. From day one, I would talk to this poor kid non stop,
explaining what I was doing, counting up and down the steps,
telling her stories about her Dad and me or about myself as a
child.
Most of time, I would do my counting as we headed up or down the
stairs. However, I would begin counting silently and end up at
number four before starting to count aloud. By now you’ve
guessed the outcome—when she started counting the steps, she
would always begin at number four. Oops!
Despite that little setback she did learn to count correctly and
really enjoys math.
The best thing is . . . she is good at math!
Remember, it is so easy to take advantage of the math
opportunities around you. Those little things you are doing now,
everyday, with your child are setting the stage for his or her
success in math when you start homeschooling!
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