As the COVID-19 crisis continues and the future of in-person child care and schooling looks uncertain, we offer additional early math resources for families to do together at home. Like our first at-home early math learning kit, which was released in the spring, the activities are fun, are easy to implement, require no special materials, and can be folded into daily life rather than feel like extra tasks.
Playful Ways to Support Young Children’s Math Development
This new set of resources is focused around bringing math into playtime. Whether children are sitting down with something to build or need to wiggle and get out some energy, playtime offers many opportunities for families to explore key early math concepts together.
The resources are geared toward children in preschool and the early grades, but children of all ages will enjoy learning from them. Feel free to print, download, and share the resources free of charge with the families you support. The entire kit is also available in Spanish.
The kit includes:
■ Reveal the Hidden Math: Suggestions for having more math conversations at home, and for encouraging children to stick with math challenges.
■ Math Snacks for Playtime: Quick but powerful ideas for finding and talking about math while playing pretend, doing puzzles, making art—really, anytime!
■ Scavenger Hunt: “Find one thing that’s taller and one thing that’s shorter.” This activity asks children to think about and search for things that come in different sizes and shapes.
■ Simon Says: Follow the leader (or don’t!) in this game that gets children moving, listening closely, and practicing early math skills.
■ Measuring Myself: “Is this book longer or shorter than your foot?” Find everyday things around your home and compare them to the length of your child’s arm, leg, hand, or foot. This activity requires no special materials (not even a ruler!), inspires children to move around, and promotes learning about measurement.
■ Build Together: If you have things at home for your child to build with, whether empty cardboard boxes, Lego blocks, or kitchen containers, these construction challenges use lots of math vocabulary and exploration.
We Want to Hear from You! How Is Your Family Using the Kit?
We know that families are creative in adapting resources to meet their needs and interests, and we would love to see those ideas. We also welcome any questions you may have. Please send your stories and questions to contactdreme@stanford.edu.
For more early math activities to do together at home, visit the new DREME Family Math website at familymath.stanford.edu.
