Here's how your child can be prepared for Kindergarten math

Before starting school, children between ages 3 and 5 already use early math skills in daily activities.

Your child might be acquainted with toys like shape sorters and building blocks, which introduces them to spatial thinking and geometry. Through these math skills, your child can identify, recognize, count, group, and compare objects of different sizes, shapes, and colors.

Your child will slowly become familiar with the concept of calculating and associating the shape of numbers with counting. As their math skills advance, they’ll understand how the number of things in a group changes when an object is added or removed from the group–what we know as addition and subtraction.

As parents, you can build these math skills early before your child starts kindergarten, and the good news is that you don’t need to source or buy tools to teach these concepts. Instead, with simple and fun activities, your child can get daily math practice while having fun.

How to develop early math skills before kindergarten

Practice counting and cardinality

Before starting kindergarten, kids are expected to know specific math facts, like how a set doesn’t change no matter how things are arranged within it. The total number of things only varies if an item is added or removed from that set.

Counting and cardinality (meaning the total number of things in a set) activities can be easily incorporated into daily life. Your child can practice counting while climbing steps, playing hide and seek, or playing Hopscotch. A quick way to foster cardinality is to ask your child questions like “how many red toys are in the bin” or “how many books are there on your shelf?”

Practice addition and subtraction

Children can do simple math problems like addition and subtraction daily during playtime. 

For example, you can hand them two cars and keep two cars for yourself. Ask them how many cars they have when you give them one of your cars and how many they will have after you take two cars from them. 

Simple activities like these, for example, how many steps they have taken after climbing one more step or how many pancakes they had for breakfast could help them understand addition and subtraction concepts.

Rhymes and songs like Ten in the bed or Five Little Ducks can also help reinforce the idea of counting and counting up or down.

Practice sorting objects

Find different ways for your child to sort objects around the house in terms of size, shapes, and colors. 

Children starting kindergarten should also know to differentiate objects from large to small.

You can easily practice these early math skills in the kitchen by asking your child to hand you the smallest fork or the biggest bowl in sight. 

Parents also do well to remember that language plays a crucial role in teaching math skills⁴. Asking simple questions like “which is the biggest toy you have?” or “Can you separate your blue toys from the yellow ones?” can help kids better understand and correlate the two.

Practice geometry

Early geometry skills include your child’s ability to identify geometric-shaped objects around the house. Ask your child what shape is their dinner plate– is it a round or square? 

Showing them a few examples, like a clock is round or the wheels of a car. What other shapes can your child identify? 

While using every opportunity to teach is good, remember to go easy on your child. Understanding basic math and geometry takes time, patience, and practice. Your child will only be 4 or 5 when starting kindergarten, so let them have fun while still learning these concepts.

Head on over to byjuslearning.com to learn more about our Active Learning approach to Math, Language, and Reading for children between Pre-K and Grade 3.