123 Count on numbers. Ah, Ah, Ah!

Math All Around
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Become a family of mathematicians! It’s easy to do math at home with your preschooler. Look for simple objects to count, measure and organize. There are numbers and shapes to see, sizes of things to compare, and problems to solve. You can even find math in your child’s favorite books. Have fun with the tips and activites below and not only will your child be practicing numbers, but also also perfecting everyday chores.

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Cooking with Math

Next time you’re making a simple recipe, let your child be your assistant chef. He can count out the eggs, measure the milk, count up to 50 to stir the batter, and help set the kitchen timer. Any time in the kitchen can be math time as your child explores different sizes and shapes of containers and foods, and works with measuring cups and spoons.
 
Watch Together: Healthy Cookie
Talk Together: What is your favorite recipe to make? Do you need to count to make it? What kind of things do you count?
 

Ready, Set, Math

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Big Bird's Number Game
Count to 7 Playlist
Cook with Cookie Printable
Did you know that your child is practicing basic math skills when she helps you set the table? Knowing there’s a placemat for each chair, a plate for each placemat, and so on is called “one-to-one correspondence.” There is geometry in the shapes of dishes and cups, and you can fold napkins into rectangles or triangles. As your child helps with these simple tasks, have her count out silverware, identify shapes, and copy patterns.
 
Watch Together: Four Pieces Of Mud Pie
Talk Together: How many plates do you need to set the table for our family? Cups? Forks?

Boxes, Tubes, and Cartons!

Save small boxes, paper towel tubes, lids and cartons for your child. He can create a city, a train, a house — whatever he can imagine. As he builds new structures, he’s solving problems. How will he make a shoebox into a skyscraper? How will he connect a box and a tube? He’ll also be exploring math by counting and sorting sizes and shapes and comparing objects by lining them up from biggest to smallest.

Watch Together: Block Model Of The City
Talk Together: What shapes can you use to build a model of the place where you live?

Laundry Time

Get help with the laundry while teaching your child to explore math concepts. It’s a win-win situation! Start by having her sort the laundry by color. Are there more darks than lights? What about the in-between colors? How many pairs of socks are there before you start? Are they all there when you finish? Your child can also help sort the clean laundry by size and family member. That makes math — and doing the laundry — fun!

Watch Together: Counting Laundry
Talk Together: What kinds of things can you count when you help with laundry?

See It, Count It, Weigh It

A trip to the grocery store is a great time to explore math with your child. He can compare sizes and colors of fruit or help weigh the produce. He can count out similar items from the shopping cart. Figuring out how objects relate to one another is another kind of mathematical problem solving — at home, ask your child to help you sort the food and find space to put things away on the shelves.

Watch Together: Supermarket Countdown
Talk Together: What would you buy 10 of at the supermarket? What would you buy one of?


Parent View
“Ella loves to cook, and the great thing about cooking is that it involves fun, real-life opportunities to practice key math skills…[like] which holds more water, the tall skinny drinking glass or that short, wide measuring cup?”
—Jenny Hansell



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