Reading Time: 4 minutes

Whether we know it or not, we all love maths! It’s a part of life itself. It’s embedded in the coil of our DNA, the shape of the body, the objects in our homes; it’s even in the paycheck we take home every month.

Children use maths skills every day, and most of the time they are completely oblivious to it. They play with their ten fingers, they draw people with two arms and two legs, they are aware when other children have more toys than they do and, rest assured, they can probably count how many chocolate chip cookies are in the cookie jar! 

Maths can be just as fun as any other subject area and the sooner our children build a healthy relationship around maths, the more enjoyable it will become as they grow older.

Here are some easy tips to incorporate maths into everyday activities and help your child experience the practicality of maths: 

1.Cooking and baking. Kids love helping grown-ups do ‘grown-up things’ and cooking is one of those things. Next time you bake a cake, ask your child to read out the measurements. By seeing how 4 measuring cups is equivalent to 1 big cup, for example, your child is practising fractions.

2. Shopping. Next time you go shopping ask the kids to compare the prices of different food items. Which one costs more? Which is cheaper? Give them the option to buy a few things they like and watch them calculate whether they have enough money to pay for them or not.

3. Count, count, count. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, there is always an opportunity to count the things you see; from how many cars are stopped at the traffic light to how many chairs are in the waiting room. To make it more entertaining, play guessing games or hold light-hearted competitions like who can guess how many birds are in the sky? Hold up your fingers while counting.

4. Feeding pets. If you have pets, ask the kids to feed them by showing them the number of scoops of food they need to fill the bowl. Compare different sized measuring tools and let them see how 2 small scoops might be the same as 1 large scoop.

5. Tidying up. When tidying up you could ask your children to count how many steps they took in total or how many red objects or circle shapes they found. You could ask them to put the stuffed animals in one pile and the wooden toys in another or to place the yellow cars next to the red cars.

6. Puzzles and games. Encourage games that help build a child’s shape recognition and understanding of spatial concepts such as puzzles. When you roll a dice in a game, ask your child to read the number out loud and count the squares as they move their playing piece across the board.

7. Use a timer. Use a stopwatch or timer to time how long it takes to walk to the park or to run from here to there. This helps children understand how some things take longer than others. Always let your child see the number and say it out loud if they can. If your child wants to know if it can beat its record, ask them if the new record needs to be a higher or lower number.

8. Make-believe. Even something as simple as pretend play provides room for mathematical language. Next time you play pretend shopkeeper, ask your child to tell you how many fruits they are selling or to help you find five ripe oranges for your basket. You can pretend to be a forgetful customer and decide you need one more orange or one less, how many do you have now?

9. Bath time. The bath is an ideal space to practise liquid measurements. Collect different sized cups and containers and teach your child about ‘full’ and ‘empty’. Ask them to pour the liquid from a bigger container to a smaller one, will it fit? No, it’s too much…

10. Measuring tape. If your child is old enough to recognise numbers, give them a tape measure and together find and measure 3 things smaller than a pencil or create a list of items bigger than the television. Ask which object is the biggest and see if your child can compare its own size relative to other objects. Do you fit under the table? Are you bigger than the curtains?

11. Sing the numbers. Read rhymes or sing numbers songs. Songs reinforce patterns and are a fun way to also practise language skills.

12. The laundry. Household jobs can become fun activities for your child. Ask them to help you sort the clothes into piles and see which pile is the biggest: the shirts or the socks? See if they can match the socks together.

13. Invent games. Cut shapes out of thick cardboard and see if your child can guess the shape with their eyes closed. Cut ribbons together into different lengths and ask your child to put them in order from longest to shortest.

14. Recognise patterns. If your child picks their outfit for the day, observe the patterns and colours within the clothing and relate them to the environment. ‘You’re wearing a blue stripy top, can you find anything stripy in this room?’

15. Online resources and printable worksheets. Save time by finding a great online platform such as PrimaryLeap and choose from the list of worksheets and printables they have suitable for your child’s age group. It will make it ten times easier!

Reading Time: 4 minutes