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Want to make the most of your time with your child in the precious, little time you have? Make learning fun with these games, puzzles and activities so that they don’t even realize that you are educating them! You both will enjoy the smiles and memories being made while spending quality time together, and you will both be wiser after the fact! Here are 10 ways to teach your child math and numbers through play.
1. Build a tower with blocks until it topples over. As you and your child are adding the blocks, count them one by one. Each time the tower crashes, have your child write down the number of blocks there were and try to beat your record each time.
2. Wooden Numbers and Counting Sticks –
3. On a nice day go outside and practice counting your steps as you walk around the yard in different directions. Then, when your child has the hang of it give them a map that you made a head of time that reads something like this:
take 5 steps forward.
turn right and walk 15 steps.
turn right again and take 12 step.
walk backward 5 steps.
turn left and walk 7 steps.
turn right and walk 24 steps and look up to find your surprise!
You will have previously counted out the route and hidden a surprise in the tree, bush, windowsill, etc. The surprise could be one of the child’s favorite toys or books to read together!
4. An exciting way to learn simple addition and practice hand-eye coordination at the same time!
5. More Fun Math Teaching Ideas
6. Follow a recipe together that requires many ingredients that need to be measured, like healthy granola bars or homemade oatmeal cookies. Learning measurement is an important concept that can only be done through real world practice.
7. Wood Counting Puzzles – 9
8. Grab a bucket of sidewalk chalk and head outside for some old fashioned fun with Hopscotch! Remember playing this “back in the day”? It is still a fun game for kids and lots of fun for little ones to learn counting. If your child needs practice with numbers 11 -20 then use the sidewalk to make a super duper extra long hopscotch that will have you exercising your way to learning and fun!
9. Floor Hopscotch Puzzle in Pink
10. Get out your deck of cards and have a game of “Go Fish”. This is especially good when you have children of various ages who want to play together. The youngest may be learning to recognize letters while the older kids could e challenged by you quizzing them on various math problems that come up in the game…. for example, make a rule for the older kids that every time they draw a card they have to add it to the number they asked for and find the sum!
11. FREE Printable Math worksheets and games:
12. Counting Bears – are a favorite of children and a classroom staple. You can use them for so many variations of teaching math (and more) that you should have some on hand for your little learners.
13. Snap It Up Math Fun Card Game
14. Multiplication Keyboard to Practice Facts
15. Math Puzzles Everything Book for Kids
I have a lot of free printable math resources, games and worksheets on my site. You can find them in the tab at the top toolbar or search them there too!
