Creating Maths interest

Would you call yourself a “math person”? Even if math isn’t your favourite subject, I’ll bet you want your kids to love it.

Today I’m going to show you how to foster a positive attitude toward math, plus equip you with some simple math activities you can do with your preschooler.

1. Give your child time for free play with building toys and puzzles

When you give your child a lot of open-ended play time with toys that require no screen and no battery, lots of learning happens. Here are some favourite building toys that really open up our kids’ minds to spatial reasoning.

• Wooden blocks
• Legos
•  Duplo (big blocks for kids not ready for Legos)
• Inter-stars

2. Point out math wherever you see it

Do you take your preschooler on errands with you?  Point out maths in action.

• “See how he’s measuring the weight of our package on the scale?  He’s using maths.”
• “The cashier has to add up how much all our groceries cost.  She’s using maths.”
• “The workers are measuring the sides of the building as they add the pieces.  They’re using maths.”
• “See how your doctor is putting your height and weight into her computer to make a graph?  She’s using maths.”

The grocery store is a great place to learn about maths!

• “Today in the grocery store we’re going to look for the number 8.  Tell me when you find one!”
• “Green peppers cost about 50NGN.  Red peppers cost about 30NGN, which is more expensive?”
• Feel this bag of apples and this bag of oranges. Which one do you think weighs more?  Let’s use this scale to see if you’re right.”

You can even pull out some maths on your next walk around the block.

• “Can you take ten big steps and two little steps?”
• “How about one hop and five medium sized steps?”
• “How many steps do you think it will take you to get to that flower? Do you think that it will take me more or fewer steps than it took you?”
• “How many shops do you think we’ll see on our walk today?”

3. Cook together

Because our kids can learn in the kitchen!

• “I need a medium bowl for this salad. Which of these do you think is the right size?”
• “The recipe asks for three eggs.  You put one in. How many more do we need?”
• “Can you measure one cup of oats for me?”
• “I need one half cup of honey for this recipe.  This is one cup. Let’s see what one half cup looks like.”
• “We need 1 1/2 cups of flour.  How can I use this half cup measuring cup to get that amount?”

More to come on Thursday!