Helping with Maths at Home
As parents, there are many ways to help your child in the area of Maths. By using Maths language in everyday situations, you can support the work being done in school:
- Try to include some of the ideas below in your daily routines.
- Try to make Maths fun at home.
- Sing songs, recite rhymes and read stories that have a number in them.
- Simple dot to dot puzzle books and games such as Snakes and Ladders are great ways of practising number order.
Helping at home
- Match socks into pairs.
- Let your child help with the cooking. Ask them to get 2 eggs etc. Let them help with measuring.
- Count objects.
- Separate the coloured/white clothes before using the washing machine.
- Separate clothing into correct piles- Mum/Dad/each child etc.
- Separate objects into correct categories- put all the tin cans/cups/ spoons together etc.
- Encourage your child to sort his/her toys into groups- red/blue bricks, big/small teddies etc.
Calendar
Look at your calendar with your child. Ask them questions relating to it, such as:
- What day of the week is it? Today is……
- What day was yesterday?
- What day will it be tomorrow?
- What month is it?
- How many days in a week?
- Let’s say the months of the year.
- What season is it?
- Can you name all the seasons?
Telling the time
- Encourage your child to look at the clock. Ask them to be “Timekeeper”. Ask them to tell you when it is 2 o’clock.
- Play games like “What Time Is It Mr. Wolf?”
- Read stories that have time in them.
- Help your child develop a sense of time e.g. We’ll play Snakes and Ladders – after we eat our dinner.
Shape
- What 2d shapes can you see?
- What 3d shapes can you see?
- What shapes can you see?
- What shapes are the signposts?
- Play “Guess My Shape”- Encourage your child to try to identify a shape you are thinking about, but answer only using Yes/No. E.g Does it have 3 sides?
Setting the table
- How many people are there?
- How many knives/forks do we need?
- Do we have enough/too many?
- Match cups to plates.
- Where do we put the knives (left/right)?
- Separate cutlery into correct categories- put all the spoons together etc.
Bed time
- How many ears does the Teddy have?
- Can you count the stairs as we go to bed?
- Sequence the day-what did we do today (in order)?
- Who will be first/last to get into bed?
Out and about
- What colours can you see?
- Play “I’m thinking of a number”- Pick a number between1-10, 1-20 and allow your child to guess what it is.
- In the car or out and about, ask your child to try simple addition- 2 and 3 makes?, 4 and 1 makes?
- Who will be first/second/third to get into the car?
- Count the blue cars.
- How many trucks can you count?
- What numbers can you see?
- How many doors can you count?
At the supermarket
- Can you get 3 tins of beans for me?
- Find a big/small bag of pasta.
- Put 4 tomatoes in a bag.
- I have 3 apples in this hand and one orange in this hand, how much fruit do I have altogether?
- Create a shop at home. Allow your child to make price tags for items around the home, and play “shop” with them. “Can I have an apple and a pizza? How much does that cost?”.
At the restaurant
- How many menus/glasses/plates etc do we need?
- Who ordered chips?
- How many people ordered pizza?
- Who has the biggest/smallest dinner?
Money
- Find the biggest coin.
- Find the smallest coin.
- Is it worth the most/least?