Baby Math. Early Math.

5 games to build a solid Math foundation for your babies

Italian physician and educator, Maria Montessori, and her collaborators found learning itself have its own pace. They call it human tendency, meaning children will have special interest in something in every stage of development. For example, children at the age of three and four have strong feeling for “math”, they will suddenly express huge amount of interest in math-related concepts, such as numbers, quantity, ordering, shape and size, etc. When your kids are fascinated with the infinite possibility of math, you know it is time to teach.

As we know playing games are the easy and fun way for learning, below are 5 little games to help your baby and toddler to build up their math foundation.

Game for Numbers and Quantity
Simon says:
It’s very simple. Let’s start with three little chairs and four kids, ask kids to find a chair and sit down when music stops. Of course, we don’t have enough chairs. At this moment, parents can ask, which is more, the babies or the chairs? This is an easy game, but perfect environment for children to learn math. 

Game for Geometry
Not only building bricks requires your little ones to use his/her hands, but also use his/her brain.
Beyond that, bricks come in all kinds of shapes these days. It’s a perfect toy for them to learn geometry. For instance, you can use rectangle bricks to build a wall, use triangle bricks to build roof. Sometimes to inspire their creativity, you can ask them to build a wall with different shapes of bricks.

Game for measuring
Who is taller?
Compare the height of each kid and ask them to form a line based on their height. The target is twofold: measuring and ordering.

Game for space relation
Toy peek-a-boo
Hide his/her toys and ask them to find the location of toy. Parents need to tell them where the toy is and you can even search the toy with them by giving them hints (up or down, forward or backward).Make sure the toy is “easy” to find. Do not make them feel frustrated.

Game for Timing
Use something concrete replace abstract 1,2,3
Decorate your clock a little. Replace 12 with a little dining table, 9 with a little crib, 6 with a smiling Sun, 3 with a children’s slide, etc. If you are a dexterous person, you can create a clock with a little door and kids will see different pictures depicting what to do when the time comes by opening the little door. This method could help them quickly grasp the concept of time.

If you like this, please share.

Related posts:

• Babies Grasp Number, Space and Time Concepts
• 5 skills to grow up a little Mathematician
• Early Math. how to teach your baby
• Cultivate your baby’s thinking ability of Math.
• Baby natural born mathematicians (II)