“Mathematics is a huge passion of mine…” says our founder, having studied various maths & stats undergrad, post-grad & professional courses, “…parents can be surprised to hear that there are many ways to encourage math learning during the first few years of life”.
Very young children need lots of time to explore things that are the same & different, to view things from different angles, move around & explore space & position, develop their understanding of numbers as they play with interesting objects, play posting games, empty & fill containers & hide things. All these experiences lay the foundations for a later understanding of numbers, shape, space & measures.
With babies & young toddlers, the emphasis is on the introduction & modelling of the use of math vocabulary as part of everyday talk, but not an expectation that babies & very young children will repeat words like ‘square’ & ‘triangle’, ‘yellow & ‘green’ or repeat ‘one, two, three’. Math concepts are learned through activities such as sorting, pouring & nesting, as well as through order.
The AMI defines the Mathematical Mind as:
“All babies are born with mathematical minds, that is, they have a propensity to learn things which enhance their ability to be exact and orderly, to observe, compare, and classify. Humans naturally tend to calculate, measure, reason, abstract, imagine and create. But this vital part of intelligence must be given help and direction for it to develop and function. If mathematics is not part of the young child’s experience, his subconscious mind will not be accepting of it at a later date.”
[vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar”]