At 28 months old, Jett recognizes and can name numbers 0 to 100. (He says "ten-ten" for one hundred, for some reason.) He does count with me, but I have no idea if he has a concept of numbers yet. (Maybe he understands one, two and three? He seems to get those right...) He does know triangle, square, circle, rectangle and oval.
At 34 months, he knows the concept of 0-10. He says "empty" to explain "zero." And he knows all his shapes, even complicated ones. I put both hands together and said, "a heart" and he tried to do it and said, "a polygon!" Late into his third year, Jett can also count by tens, identify patterns of 3 or less, sort and classify like items and add and subtract physical objects (not on paper, with symbols).
At 4 years old, Jett got tested through the local school district and the school psychologist was excited to tell me that Jett could do all the math, including adding and subtracting (using pictures and manipulatives -- but the math "sentences" like 2+2=?, he didn't get all of those right, but he did get some right!) So, my math strategy is working! Not only because he is learning, but because HE LOVES MATH!
Where do you start teaching math?
To begin, I'd read this article from RightStart Mathematics on Math and the Young Child. It's a 2-page overview on how to introduce math concepts early. You'll find a presentation called The Future of Primary Math that has no sound, but if you click through the slides, you'll get the idea of what they mean.
In addition to supplementation to improve Jett's cognition and memory, we do lots of educational activities. Here's a collection of great blog posts (from blogs We Can Do All Things, Bill and Ria, Elaine Ng Friis, Hannah's Shenanigans, Special Connection Homeschool, Counting Coconuts, A Super Baby, The Pinay Homeschooler and more) as well as links to help you teach your child understand early math concepts such as:
- Shape Recognition
- Number recognition and formation
- Counting, including skip counting and “counting on”
- Pattern identification and creation
- Sorting and classifying
Activities that Support Early Math Concepts
It's important to keep it fun. Have your child stop the activities BEFORE he gets tired of it so he always want more and is excited to participate each and every time. Don't feel like you have to buy all the stuff in each activity, a lot of things you can find around your house, borrow from friends and even check out from the library!
Shapes
Sorting
Number Recognition
Sew it: Sensory Numbers
A Tree Dice Game
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| Jett placing colored dominoes on chalk letters. |
Understanding the Concept of Numbers
The Abacus
We started using one at 34 months old. It's a great way for kids to see and touch numbers to get a better understanding of number values. Jett loves the abacus!
Here is the overview on how to introduce the abacus.
You can get free sample lessons from RightStart Mathematics
Or you can purchase their entire program. Kay Ness, Jett's neurodevelopmentalist, highly recommends it.
Activity
To teach number concepts up to 100, play this simple game:
1) Say a number and slide the beads across to show it on the abacus.
2) Say the same number and ask your child to slide the beads across.
Then, if old enough, your child can say a number for you to show on the abacus. (Careful not to underestimate your child or bore them. In my first lesson, I was showing Jett how to move "1" bead across and I said it was his turn. So he used the palm of his hand and moved ALL of the beads in all the rows in a couple of swipes leaving 1 bead on each row. He pointed to each "1" that was left and quickly said: "One, one, one, one!" and was done with the lesson for the day.)
Using this method, your child will easily recognize 6, 7, and 8 beads without counting, just by visualizing. Also, let's say you choose 6 beads on one wire and 8 on the next one. You can show how the five and five on those two wires makes ten, and some are left over for early introduction to subtraction and addition.
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| The M&D abacus that I painted with watercolors. I added painter's tape on the sides and wrote 10/ten, 20/twenty... in silver marker. |
Learning how to count by tens and fives makes a lot of sense when you show your child on the abacus. The picture above shows how I modified Jett's abacus for teaching him to count by tens.
Number Puzzles
The Learning Journey International has two and three-part puzzles called Match It! Puzzle Games Counting
and Match It! Puzzle Games Numbers
. They are large, self-correcting and Jett enjoys putting them together. You can control the level of difficulty by giving more or less choices for your child to choose from when solving the puzzles. I got the two-part puzzles when Jett was 30 months and the three-part puzzles when he was 32 months old, both from Ross for about $5. (I later used these puzzles to write the Japanese names and symbols for the corresponding numbers.)
Counting
Easy DIY Counting Cards
Counting using Bead Stairs
Counting Numbers 0 to 9 using Coins, Sticks and Beads
Counting 11 to 20 using beads
Counting by Tens with Legos
Counting to 100 with little cards
Counting Six Different Ways
Pattern Recognition
Activity Resources
The Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County's (DSFOC) "The Learning Program"
offers materials for free on their website. Registration required. They
have an "Everyday Math" handout with plenty of activity ideas for
prenumber concepts and early number concepts such as
sorting, comparing objects and patterning. Early number concepts
include rote counting, counting with meaning and number symbol (numeral)
recognition. -- from Bill and Ria's Blog.
Worksheets
Jett loves doing worksheets in his Crayola dry erase "folder." I enclose it so that he can write all over it and we can reuse the sheet as needed or give it away to others when we are done. If I forget, he follows me around insisting on doing his worksheets. Other moms call it "funsheets" but Jett thinks they are fun anyway. As with all of these activities, offer opportunities for learning, but don't force it or your child to sit for long periods of time hunched over worksheets.
Free kindergarten math worksheets from School Sparks.
Free Counting Pages
from Early Learning Activities.
Free P-K math worksheets from TouchMath.
Free Shapes Worksheets from Kids Learning Station.
Free Preschool Pattern Worksheets from Kids Learning Station.
Free Preschool Numbers Worksheets from Kids Learning Station.
At the Dollar Store and Big Lots, they have lots of worksheet workbooks to choose from. Here are some that are appropriate for early math skills:
Disney Shapes and Sizes (Dollar Store)
Teaching Tree Colors & Shapes Pre K/K (Dollar Store)
Little People PreSchool Vol.2 (Dollar Store)
Teaching Tree Counting Kindergarten (Dollar Store)
Sesame Street Let's Learn Beginning Math (Big Lots) $2
Sesame Street Let's Get Ready for School (Big Lots) $2
Math Songs and Videos
You can check out/subscribe to my youtube channel "andiandi222" and see the over 700 short educational videos I've collected. There are a lot of videos that show shapes, songs, numbers and other math concepts as well as reading support. The playlist is called "Math Concepts 3.5 years old" and then there are plenty math videos sprinkled throughout other playlists.
Math Programs
For a more multi-sensory approach to learning math using manipulatives, there are teaching resources like Numicon, which was developed in the UK and is available at downsed USA's online store. - from Bill and Ria's Blog.
Here's Numicon's resources for children 3-5 years old.
Nathan Purdy's mom, Barbara, says that the Math-U-See program is the one curriculum she highly recommends for learning math.
The man who developed it has a son with T21 so he understood the need
for making the abstract concepts concrete. It isn't specifically for people with disabilities, but seems to work especially well for many of
them. She says, "We also did Touch Math prior to Math-U-See and I found that
to be very easy for Nathan to learn adding, subtracting and multiplying
although it wasn't until the Math-U-See that he began to understand
what he was actually doing, even though he was able to get the right
answer with Touch Math."
2+2 Free Math Software your child can work with when s/he is able to use the mouse. Counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Books
This free e-book includes a brief discussion of the five main components of any basic math program including graphing. In addition, this e-book includes time-tested tips and strategies
(plus 38 worksheets).
One Two Buckle My Shoe: Math Activities For Young Children
by Sam Ed Brown You can get this for about a penny on Amazon.
Early Math Books for Children
These books are fun and educational all are Jett-tested and approved.
Is It Larger? Is It Smaller?
by Tana Habon, a pictures-only book with photographs of objects of varying sizes.
BIG & Little : Board Book
by Todd Parr has nice, bright pictures and big, simple text.
1, 2, Buckle My Shoe
by Anna Grossnickle Hines is a nice first counting book only some pages have words.
Seven Hungry Babies
by Candace Fleming is a fun math story. It has some big sized words, some small words with great, bright, expressive illustrations. Jett loves the "sound" words. (This is the first book that Jett started to read the words aloud.)
Five Little Chicks (Classic Board Books)
by Nancy Tafuri Fun to read aloud with rhyme and repetition, sturdy board book, with nice, but detailed pictures and fairly big, bold words.
Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Renbach Big, bold words with rhyming. Pictures are a little too busy and detailed for young babies.
Click, Clack, 123 by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Odds and evens : a numbers book by Heidi Goennel
Quack and Count
by Keith Baker. This book is awesome for multi-age groups because although the text is simple there are two levels of math on each page. Simple duck counting as well as addition to arrive at the same number.
Just Enough Carrots (MathStart 1)
by Stuart J. Murphy is a wonderful book about the concepts of less, more and the same amount.
Eggs and Legs: Counting by Twos by Michael Dahl
On the Launch Pad: A Counting Book About Rockets by Michael Dahl is fun to count down from 12-1.
1-2-3 Peas (Classic Board Books)
by Keith Baker, with huge, colorful numbers and the corresponding amount of peas doing silly activities throughout the book. It covers the essential numbers between 1 and 100 and is helpful to introduce the idea of larger numbers.
Zero by Kathryn Otoshi learning about the shapes of numbers.
Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh, seems to be a counting book, it also serves as an early introduction to addition and subtraction.
Length by Henry Arthur Pluckrose, is from an excellent series called “Math Counts”
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni, is a delightful Caldecott Honor Book that will appeal to all ages.
Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews This is a strangely written book and pictures are odd too. But, it has nice sized words and very simple, bright pictures. Jett enjoyed this one a lot, although we didn't. Good from the library!
One More Bunny Board Book
: Adding from one to ten by Rick Walton Illustrated by Page Miglio Great book. Eleven big words per page. Nice big words, separated from picture. Fun to read, exclamation points, rhyming words, about activities that toddlers can relate to. Great introduction to addition.
Help Me Learn Addition by Jean Marzollo, is an adorable book using photographs of figurines and rhyming narrative to introduce basic addition equations in a way that appeals to young readers.
Math Appeal: Mind-Stretching Math Riddles
by Greg Tang and Harry Briggs. At 3 1/2 years old, Jett loved all of their books with short, fun math poems that cover a range of math levels. Including Math Potatoes, Math for all Seasons, Math Fables and 
The Grapes Of Math.
How Do Octopi Eat Pizza Pie? Pizza Math (I Love Math)
is part of the I Love Math Series... At 3.5 and 4 years old, Jett loves these books!
My One Book - My Ten Book by Jane Belk Moncure
by Jane Belk Moncure
Four
funny apes help a child find shapes in the objects around her,
including a circle in a doughnut, a triangle in a kite, and a rectangle
in a door
by Jane Belk Moncure
Squirrel promises to divide her pie into sections for her animal friends if she wins the pie contest.
by Jane Belk Moncure
A child helps a circus clown find the animals that have escaped from a train.
by Jane Belk Moncure
Little
Bear makes a tiny snowball that she puts on the end of her nose, but it
falls off and rolls down the hill, becoming a very big snowball in the
process.
by Jane Belk Moncure
An
astronaut in a magic moon machine agrees to take a child with her on
her journey, but the child has so much baggage the machine will not fly.
Math TV Shows
Team Umizoomi is on Nick, Jr. and is the first preschool show that focuses on early math skills. It's a half an hour long and features counting, pattern recognition, shape recognition, search and seek, puzzles and sorting and classifying--all in a fun way. At 37 months, Jett loves the show and excitedly participates to answer their questions. He even eagerly wears his "TV glasses" (therapeutic glasses) in order to be allowed to watch it--even putting the glasses on himself!
There's even a Team Umizoomi math kit. Here's a review of it at Ourkidsmom.com. You can purchase it at ToysRus for about $20. Looks very interesting!
Monster Math is very similar to Team Umizoomi in concept.
The next step is Peg + Cat, a fabulous PBS show that, at 4 years old, Jett loves. It's all about various concepts of math and is also very creative and entertaining. "Problems" are no longer scarey, they are all challenges to merrily solve. Jett goes around the house creating "problems" to solve. I know, I'm a lucky mom.
Math Apps
These are the ones that I like because they are free, easy for a new iPad user to navigate, getting the answer right is not a huge deal, so they encourage the child to try and Jett likes them because they make learning math fun:
Injini There's a great free version, but the full is $25. (Maybe even worth it!) It has find it, puzzles, matching, a simon-says-type game, a fun writing game and more. It is very good.
Eurotalk Math age 3-5 Love this app! (I think it's $5?) It shows how to do each lesson very simply, both visually and verbally. It slowly expands on each concept (except patterns, I think it goes a little too fast. And the writing is hard too. I'd do the Injini first before getting to the writing part). It's only positive, no "wrong," just try again, and doesn't go overboard with "WOW! YOU DID IT!" kind of response for each little thing. It's very low key. It covers a lot, including number recognition, patterns, shapes, sorting and writing in a friendly, colorful, fun but not crazy way. It's also not loud or flashy.
Patterns by EdNinja has cute pictures and lively music to teach patterns.
Monster Math uses monsters and animals in simple equations.
i learn with Boing has cute games to learn counting.
Math in Action helps with sorting.
Little Writer by Alligator Apps helps the child learn to write numbers.
Trash Stash with Peep and the Big, Big World is a simple sorting app.
Math Apps List and Reviews for Pre Schoolers
Kindergarten Level
According to Homeschoolmath.net, this is a list of objectives and goals kids should be able to do by the end of kindergarten:
- Count by rote at least to 20, but preferably a little beyond.
- Know the concepts of equality, more, and less
- Count backwards from 10 to 0.
- Recognize numbers
- Be able to write numbers
- Recognize basic shapes
- Understand up, down, under, near, on the side, etc. (basic directions)
- Have a very basic idea of addition and subtraction
- The should also be exposed to two-digit numbers.
At almost 37 months old (just turned 3), Jett's only missing these kindergarten skills:
- Know the concepts of equality, more, and less (he uses the words: empty, full, half and a lot appropriately so we are getting close)
- Be able to write numbers (we are working on this--his fine motor skills are improving!) and
- Have a basic idea of addition and subtraction
Math Homeschooling Curriculum
Once your child knows 1-20, you can start this free home math course:
Next Level Math
Large Numbers
Large Numbers and Bead Activities
Addition
Activities:
Addition with Beads and Bears
Chicks Addition Game
Addition Boxes
Adding Up to Ten
Strategy:
Here's a great post on teaching kids addition techniques/math facts called Mental Math Addition Strategies from Teaching the Early Years blog.
Books:
Fun math book called, Mission: Addition by Loreen Leedy
Great list: Best Books for Teaching Addition
Tools:
Rainbow Numbers Magnetic Set
Free Fruits and Veggies +/- Cards
Get Up and Move: Addition Gallery Walk
Subtraction
Activities:
Lego Subtraction
Rainbow Subtraction Game
Strategy:
Here's a great post on teaching kids subtraction techniques/math facts called Mental Math Subtraction Strategies from Teaching the Early Years blog.
Books:
Great list: Best Books for Teaching Subtraction
Tools:
Rainbow Numbers Magnetic Set
Get Up and Move: Subtraction Gallery Walk
Skip Counting
Montessori Inspired Skip Counting
Advanced Shapes
3D Shapes
Time
Clock Faces and Time
Learning how to tell time
Graphing
Dinosaur Egg Graphing
Measuring
Learning how to Measure with Fruit
Related Posts
The Foundation is run 100% by volunteers so all proceeds go directly to families for scholarships and programs! It is their goal to raise record money this year so they can support the growing number of scholarship requests and implement some additional programs such as Lose The Training Wheels and iCan Work program. 
The best type of abacus should have the first five beads colored differently from the next five. Like the 
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(right). These puzzles are more complicated and have smaller, but still durable pieces to play with. 
)