Helping your EYFS child with Maths
Are you one of those parents who wants to help your child with their maths learning but you feel that you don’t know where to start? Maybe you are concerned that you will confuse your child. Is so, then this advice is for you.
Maths is all around us. Children will explore numbers and shapes from a very young age, without you even realising it. Immerse your child in the language of maths: count with them; play with coins; look at the clock and talk about significant times and play games. Play is an activity that is used by children to make sense of the world; you will observe them playing and practicing favourite games and activities over and over again in order to explore, investigate and recreate. This is why it is important to ensure that maths is experienced through play as much as possible.
Simple maths can support children and babies in their early years, it’s multi-sensory and is everywhere. It can happen through music, movement and mark making, both indoors and outdoors. In fact most areas of a child’s everyday play and experiences can incorporate maths, such as shopping, baking, climbing the stairs or setting the table at meal times. It happens through music, songs and rhymes, stories and can be seen out and about in the environment through traffic signs, house numbers, buildings etc. Maths is not just about counting, it also includes shape, patterns, sequencing, size, weight, estimating, and solving problems.
Below are links to further advice provided and collated by experts in Early Maths. Try some of them out with your child. If you want to discuss any of these, feel free to pop into school and ask us.