I’ve been giving you several examples of ways to include math in our children’s lives. I know it’s important. You know it’s important.
But why? What do our children really need to know? Are we pushing too much too early?
Those are questions that I have myself. Part of me thinks that they are so young. Let them play! My daughter can play Candy Land and enjoy the pictures of candy. Should I make her count her moves all the time? If I don’t work with her on counting her moves will she be “behind” the other kids in 3 year old preschool?
Well, I know that encouraging counting may not guarantee a spot in an Ivy League school, but it’s not going to hurt either.
The NCTM is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. This is an organization devoted to math education. I want to take some time to share some thoughts that they have about math – in order to prepare for what our children should expect when entering school. There are thinking math standards and content math standards…
Problem Solving
Communication
Reasoning
Connections
Estimation
Number Sense
Geometry and Spatial Sense
Measurement
Statistics and Probability
Fractions and Decimals
Patterns and Relationships
An article from Early Childhood: Where Learning Begins gives some great examples of what we can do as parents to help our children learn these skills. Below are some ideas that children can do, without taking too much planning or extra effort on our part! Really, we probably do many of these already, but now you may be aware of why you are doing it!
Problem Solving: Have your child figure out solutions to everyday situations.
Communication: Talk with your child and really listen to them. Read books with your children that rhyme, repeat, and/or have numbers in them. Draw pictures or use objects to solve a problem and show to represent numbers.
Reasoning: Ask your child questions and then wait for, and really listen to the answers. Ask your child to think about why something is the way it is.
Connections: Use every day activities such putting groceries away, to work on sorting, size, and other attributes.
Patterns and Relationships: Find patterns in pictures, and reccuring events such as days of the week. Use blocks, beads, pasta, or really anything, to make a pattern!
Number Sense and Numeration: Count anything and everything! Point out objects as your child counts it. Use fingers or other objects to help count. Sort objects by similarities and differences.
Geometry and Spatial Sense: Find angles, shapes and 3-dimensional shapes in the real world.
Measurement: Use nonstandard units of measure to see how long something is (the couch is 10 baby dolls long). Cooking, gardening, grocery shopping, sewing, woodworking, and chores can all involve measurement. Discuss that some activities are longer than others. Set time limits for activities. (You get 5 more minutes to play, and then it’s time to brush your teeth). Use after, before, and during to describe what will be happening.
Fractions: Sharing food, chores, and treats can be done with fractions.
Estimation: Use the words such as about, approximately, in between, around, fewer than, more than, and near regularly. Take a guess and the check for accuracy.
Statistics and Probability: Chart anything! Stickers, food, people in the family, toys, etc. Use stickers to record daily activities (phone rings, doorbell rings, using the toilet, eating, etc).
So, after all of that, the question still remains. Am I expecting too much out of my 3 year old, or am I just preparing her for the future. Often times I think it is a little bit of both. We just do the best we can, and hope that we are doing it right!