Math and the Preschool Child.

Parents are typically somewhat quick to assist their child with reading needs, but the same parent who wants the child to excel and to begin to read prior to starting school will be somewhat reticent to help them with math skills.

For many parents, math isn’t something they enjoyed and this attitude is often passed down to the child, when realistically, they can achieve more and have a small head start if they are taught rudimentary math skills prior to beginning kindergarden or preschool.

Parents or caregivers need to work with children on math skills prior to beginning in preschool. Mathematics is one of the more important basic skills that smaller children will be required to achieve, but more important even than learning basic skills is learning the attitude that will permit them to learn, or even to excel at math.

The first actual math problems and topics are actually verbal skills. These are learning to count and learning that the numbers they are counting actually stand for something. Learning to say your numbers to a child is much the same as learning the alphabet. It stands to reason that those numbers stand for something but until they are actually shown, they don’t know what, in much the same way that a child memorizes the alphabet but doesn’t immediately put those letters into words and understand.

Reading comes quite naturally for some children and in like fashion, math will come more naturally to other children. Typically females will be less likely to select math as a favorite subject, but this is as much from attitude and learned behavior at times as it is a lack of understanding of the subject materials, which is why encouragement is often in order with young girls who are attempting to learn math skills.

As a general rule of thumb and a tip to helping you to teach math skills to any smaller child, there are three aspects of learning math for the child.
Understanding math means teaching those three skills at varying times when the child appears to understand the first.

Speaking, or verbal math, such as counting is a verbal skill, not necessarily a written one, but they do need to learn how to write the numbers as well. The three aspects of learning math are the verbal aspect, or learning to count, the quantity aspect, or learning how to match up the number or word, to the actual amount that the number stands for, and writing the symbol for that number or the actual number itself.

Teaching your child to count is the first portion of the familiarity that your child will get with numbers. Learning to count gives them the basis and within a few days or weeks, you can begin to match up the amount of something, two balls, or two apples, or two candies, to the spoken word, so that the child effectively understands the relationship that exists between the spoken and the number quantity.

Very often we turn to software to teach children mathematics, but in many cases, the best way is often the oldest and the most simple way to teach. Using fruits, toys, or other items, and your own voice you can teach any child their math basics.