I’m a seventh grade math teacher, and my husband and I have always both been mathematically inclined. (We even met in a math class!) Needless to say, both of us naturally see ways to incorporate math with Buddy. However, it isn’t something that comes naturally to many parents. We have all heard to read to young kids, but how many parents think about setting a foundation for strong math skills? Not many, I’d suspect. So I’m here to share my experiences with having fun building Buddy’s math skills.

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The Common Core math standard topics for Kindergarten are: counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base ten, measurement and data, and geometry. These are the skills that I’m working on with Buddy through play and everyday life experiences.

Counting and Comparing

Playing games and keeping score is my favorite way to build this skill. Buddy loves games, and I’ve blogged about some of my favorites here and here. We also predict and count different items as we play (how many animals do we have here?)

One of Buddy’s favorite games is Cars and Trucks, which is a kid version of war. When we are done with the game, at least one of us will have to count into the twenties to figure out who has the most cards. That game also involves special +1, +2, and +3 cards that help kids practice addition.

Adding and Subtracting

We started the idea of addition and subtraction with the game Uno Moo. You start the game with five animals, and after each game one person is out of animals, and everyone else has some left over. We just let the people with animals left over pick some more to get five. So I ask Buddy questions like, “I have two left over, how many animals do I need to take?”

Sometimes when we play games, we add how many we have together. Playing memory and Let’s Go Fishing are two great games for that. “I have three matches and you have five. How many matches have we found together?”

We’ve also started to do some addition/subtracting with Buddy’s physical therapy exercises. I’ll set a certain number of times that we are going to do an activity and then we count how many we’ve done. Part way through, we’ll figure out how many more we still need to do.

Understanding Two Digit Numbers

Buddy made the connection between counting past twenty with Advent calendars. Something clicked in his head, and he understood that once you hit twenty, you continue counting normally. Soon after that he started noticing two digit numbers everywhere, and he wanted to learn how to read them.

We point out numbers in the world around us, and Buddy points them out too. The grocery store is a big one for us. He will count the checkouts up to 28 on our way out of the store. And he’ll read the aisle numbers as we are in them. He also makes note of large numbers on packages (that package has 12 towels!). Other places we practice reading two digit numbers are restaurants with table numbers, street signs, and basketball scores. (March madness is very important in our house!)

Shapes

Since I’m a math teacher, I’ve always been very conscious about naming shapes correctly with Buddy. When he was learning names of shapes, if he called a square a rectangle, I’d say, “yes, but it’s a special kind of rectangle.” Some of my seventh graders have the hardest time understanding that squares are also rectangles.

We play with magnatiles often at our house. It’s one of Buddy’s favorite things to do. At first, we were calling the triangles: little, medium, and big. And then I realized that it would be so easy to call them by correct names. So we call the small ones with equal sides equilateral triangles, the ones that can be made into squares right triangles, and the tall, skinny ones with two equal sides isosceles triangles.

Pattern blocks are another fun way to play with shapes, and learn different names for shapes. There are trapezoids and parallelograms and hexagons, which are all shapes that are not often seen in kid’s shape activities. If you don’t have your own set of pattern blocks, you can have your kids use digital ones or print ones out.

Measurement and Data

Buddy and I sometimes pull out a ruler or measuring tape, and he measures different things. Occasionally, we will measure to see which item is longer or taller. But most often, he just wants to see which number is closest to the item’s length or width.

We also use measurement when we cook or bake together. Buddy and I made a Boston Cream Pie last weekend, and we needed 6 tablespoons of cornstarch for the filling. I asked him to help me count, and after we did four tablespoons, I asked him how many more we needed to add. Moments like that one combine several of those math standards (counting, addition, and measurement) into things we are already doing.

The kindergarten data standard is about sorting things into categories and then counting how many things are in each category. We’ve done something similar when we did a sort with attribute links. We also sometimes do something similar when we play with counters. Buddy loves to grab a handful to fill up one of his magnatiles creations, and sometimes I’ll ask him how many of each he has. (Two squirrels, three owls, and five apples!)

Great Math Resources

Hopefully I’ve helped you realize that you can easily incorporate math activities into your normal life without buying anything else. But I wanted to share a few more things if you are looking for something else to supplement the math in your home.

My favorite math books are Countablock and 123 Count with Me. Countablock is perfect for helping kids count to 100. It’s a chunky board book, and it’s so much fun! 123 Count with Me is great for helping kids read, write, and add numbers. There are grooved numbers to trace and flaps to lift to engage kids. The book counts up to 20, and then there are addition problems with flaps as well. (The alphabet counterparts to these books, Alphablock and A is for Apple respectively, are also great!) Buddy also loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and there is at least one math topic built into every episode.

Those are a few examples of some of the ways my family does math together. Some of those math moments might take a little extra thought initially, but then it will become second nature. If you can help to establish a comfort and curiosity with numbers before your child starts school, it could serve as a foundation for a lifetime of strong mathematical thinking.