We recent received a question about a 4 year old. The mother asked if we had any tips on math activities for cognitive development of related skills.

Hannah, one of our tutors currently studying Early Childhood Education, had a few tips:

  1. Focus on things that are fun and of particular interest to the child.
    • For example Baking!
      • There are so many opportunities to discuss measurements, fractions and addition.
      • And for a quick science add-on, why not discuss how baking soda and yeast produce a gas called carbon dioxide that makes the food rise in the oven.
  2. Find a clock the child can play with.
    • Kids love to spin them and you can discuss the different hands, addition and subtraction.
  3. When you’re reading, take the opportunity to incorporate counting.
    • Great things to count are spots on a page, stairs in a picture or kids in a picture.

Outside math activities for preschoolers

When spring shows up, make sure to enjoy fun activities wwhere kidds can incorporate math:

  1. Hopscotch
    • Make a hopscotch pattern with chalk incorporating numbers
    • Hop on whatever number is called out and written on the ground
  2. Equations in chalk
    • Don’t hesitate to do addition or subtraction equations w/ chalk.
    • Instead of number, try using things like stars: two stars plus three starts equals how many stars?
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