What math games can you play with your child in preschool?

Youngacademics, 02 Jun 2020

Part of encouraging children to enjoy learning is by making it fun. The team at Young Academics in Sydney believes in developing creative ways to teach children communication, critical thinking and maths. We believe that this not only helps children learn from a young age, but it also helps to foster a love of learning for the future. We know that many preschool children are stuck at home due to the current public health crisis. However, that shouldn’t stop parents from playing fun and educational preschool maths games with their children. Even when social distancing days are over, it’s healthy to incorporate these preschool maths games at home. Your children will look forward to learning and will become masters at maths!

Why should you encourage your child to play preschool maths games instead of simply teaching them? There are a number of benefits to this approach; one of them being that children are more receptive to the subject. Here is a more detailed explanation of each benefit.

  • Increases motivation to learn - Maths games are fun and a lot more enjoyable than sitting in a classroom and being taught a concept or lesson. With a fun and understandable approach, students will be more motivated to learn.
  • Improves communication skills - In some games, one-on-one communication is required with your child and yourself. This allows your child to explain when they don’t understand something and learn to express themselves.
  • Opportunity to learn teamwork - In a classroom setting or with multiple children at home, some maths games encourage children to work together in order to win or achieve the goal. They learn teamwork, an important skill for preschool and later on in life.
  • Fosters a love of learning - The fun approach to understanding concepts in maths fosters a love for learning later on in life as children associate learning with a positive experience.
  • Mind and body connection - Many games promote physical connection with what the brain needs to know, including cognitive learning processes and the trial-and-error problem-solving concept.
  • Understands concepts regardless of comprehension level - Maths games have the ability to teach children concepts regardless of their understanding and cognitive level.

It’s clear that preschool maths games have a profound effect on children. Whether playing at home or preschool, maths games are enjoyable ways of teaching your child difficult concepts.

3 preschool maths games you should play with your child

#1 Hopscotch

Hopscotch utilises mind and body skills by teaching mathematics as well as physical coordination. The popular game tests children’s addition and subtraction skills in a fun game of hopping on the accurate answer. It’s easy to organise as well. Simply get a piece of chalk and draw the hopscotch grid—odd numbers are in vertically connected boxes and even numbers are in horizontally connected boxes. Allow your children to play in a team or even, invite some of their friends over to create a competition. The first person to reach 9 wins!

#2 Sorting sweets

Once sweets are involved, there is an endless number of things you can teach your child. Use easily countable but differently coloured sweets like M&Ms, gummy bears or different flavours of hard candy to teach your child about relationships and patterns. Ask them to group all of the similarly coloured candies by drawing circles on a sheet of paper and letting your child group each similar candy into the circle. You can also allow them to practice their verbal counting skills with the individual candies. Lastly, in different bags, write a singular number then, ask your child to put the correct amount of candies in each bag. This teaches them to count and sort.

#3 Fun graphing

Part of maths is in learning patterns and relationships. Graphing with fun items like cut-outs of different modes of transportation, different fruits or toy animals can teach your child the basics of graphing. Draw a simple graph on paper with a fun topic for your child. Then, using their toys or another fun object, ask them to fill in the graph. For example, colour one line of the graph green and then, using different coloured apples, ask them to fill the line with the corresponding apple. It’s not overly complicated and is a hands-on way of introducing graphing to your little one.

At Young Academics, we strive to provide a holistic environment for learning and development for your child. This is why we incorporate fun preschool maths games into their daily routines. We understand that learning does not have to be boring and rigorous—it can be fun and enjoyable! Our licensed and professional staff are dedicated to ensuring that your little one is provided with the best education and experience. For more information about our centre. Contact us today on 1300 668 993. Want to join the Young Academics family? Drop your details here, and our friendly team will be in touch with you shortly.

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