How Do You Teach Math to a Preschooler?

     There is a growing sense of urgency in America that our children become math literate at younger ages, and that students of all ages understand math concepts better and that is coming clear down to kindergarten.

     The good news is that it is easy to help young children be ready for the world of math.

     So how do you go about teaching math to a preschooler?  The same way you help children learn colors and letters and anything else – about two minutes of fun at a time.   You don’t need flash cards, workbooks, or instructions manuals.  Just help children look at the world around them with a math perspective.

     Half of the battle in learning math is understanding the vocabulary.  If you have a name for an object or concept you can learn what to do with it.  You might wonder about kindergarten children talking about the vertex on a triangle, we called them corners in the old days, but it’s only a big deal if you don’t know the word. 

     I’ve seen preschoolers who can differentiate 11 different kinds of dinosaurs, 23 different zoo animals, and seven different superheroes with their corresponding super powers.  It’s not a stretch at all to assume they can learn a sphere is like a circle, but a circle is flat and a sphere is solid. Lots of things are spheres, soccer balls and basketballs.  Lots of things are circles, Ritz crackers and polka dots.  Our kids can do this, no problem.

     It helps to start young, make it a game, and do it two minutes at a time several times a day.

     Two minute math lessons for toddlers might be:

·      Counting fingers and toes with toddlers as you tickle them.

·      Counting the stairs as you go up and down

·      Noticing when things are bigger and smaller

·      Talking about things that are alike and different

     Two minute math lessons for three year olds might be:

·      Making a pattern with the blocks, red block, blue block, red block, blue block

·      Noticing shapes and playing “Let’s find a circle”

·      Counting the socks in the drawer, blocks in the tower you build, or people in the photo

·      Sorting things that match and creating categories,  spoons in one pile, forks in another; blue cups on this side, yellow cups on that side

     Two minute math lessons for four year olds might include:

·      Noticing numbers in the grocery store, on your mail box, on street signs. Play an “I Spy” game to find a 6 or 3.  Show them bigger numbers and say, “the sign says 65 miles an hour,” or “Look, it costs 89 cents.”

·      Using the words sphere, cube and cone when you play with a ball, a block or get ice cream.

·      Play “More or Less” games:  Are there more red candies or green candies in the bowl?  Are there more tulips or daffodils in your back yard?

·      Play count and see how high you can count before you get your shoes on, or I get the floor swept.

·      Practice writing numbers.

·      Use simple oral math “games” to add and subtract numbers while waiting in the car, or in line at the store, like, “If I have two fish and you have four fish, who has more?  What if I give you one of my fish, then how many will you have?”  Encourage them to use their fingers.

·      Learning a home phone number, both to recite and write it.  (This will take

lots of two minute sessions for most children.  Just keep at it.)

     You don’t have to be a math whiz to help your child be one. Children like playing these little games, in part because it means they have your full attention, and in part because learning is fun.  Playfulness is crucial.  Parents who are gentle cheerleaders are important.  But it mostly takes mindfulness: remembering to do it, and being aware of how valuable it is to your child.  School readiness is more than ABCs.  Math matters and we can do it.

           

© Diane L. Mangum

Sing with me, “Clean up, pick up, put away!”

     One afternoon decades ago I sat with my Grandma Ruby on her green sofa and listened to her stories of childhood.  She laughed as she recalled how when it was time to wash up the dinner dishes her sister Pearl always seemed to disappear into the bathroom, and stay there long enough that the dishes were almost done when she came back.  I laughed.  I had similar experiences with sisters.

     Some things don’t change. Even at preschool there are a few children who suddenly remember they need to go the bathroom when toy clean-up time is announced. Kids have been ditching out on clean up time for a long, long time.

      Whether kids like it or not, cleaning up is perpetual because life is messy. Eating, playing, working, creating, and even making mistakes makes messes.  Most of us at some point have wished there were elves or magic or mothers or someone to make them go away, but they just don’t. 

      We’ve all somewhere seen the sign I spotted on the wall in the photocopy store:

Clean Up After Yourself.

Your mother doesn’t work here.

       The catch is that in the world of small children their mother or father does “work” in the place where they make lots of messes, and most children have real expectations that if they choose to not clean up their parents will take care of it. 

      Babies start out needing absolutely everything, and parents love them and care for them.  Ironically the next step is to begin working yourself out of a job.  The best care you can your child is to teach him or her all the skills they need to handle life when mom or dad isn’t there, including how to clean up all kinds of messes.  Constantly cleaning up, literally and figuratively, for your child and taking care of his every problem is like pushing him forever in a stroller and never letting them learn to walk.  Growing up means cleaning up our own messes.

         The typical response of a child who knocks over a cup of milk at the preschool shack table is the quick exclamation, “I didn’t mean to!”  Hidden in that exclamation is the message, “This was an accident so I shouldn’t have to clean this up.” Many adults and children all hope that if we didn’t try to make something happen there shouldn’t be any unhappy consequences. But there are just two choices with messes, someone cleans it up or everyone lives with it. Learning to pick up, sweep up and wipe up with a good attitude whether the mess was intended or not is a big deal.

    

     Daniel Tiger, the children’s television show teaches the little song, “Clean up, pick up, put away. Clean up every day.” And I think the best part is that it teaches cleaning up should expect to clean up every day. What an advantage a child has if he or she goes into adult hood with the habit of always cleaning up messes.

     Cleaning up is more than just tidiness.  Genuine maturity has come when a person can also clean up social and spiritual messes with an apology, kind words or better choices.  Really great people are the ones who choose to work on the messes in our society that they didn’t make, but need fixing anyway.

     I think children like the feeling that comes with being able to take care of things.  It’s empowering to feel capable. Cleaning up after ourselves is a negative only if we have been conditioned to think that someone else should do it for us. The world will be a better place someday because we have taught our children to clean up, do their share, and then just a little bit more.

           

© Diane L. Mangum

Halloween Warning: Real Witches on the Playground

   There is just no telling what you are going to hear come out of a four year old’s mouth. 

     One day in October some years ago a little girl ran over to me on the playground. Horror was on her face and she was so overwrought that she couldn’t talk.  She shook with breathless sobs.  My co-teacher and I looked her over, searching for wounds, gushing blood, broken limbs, something that would help us understand what was wrong.

     “Take a breath and try to tell us what happened,” we teachers said.  “Where do you hurt?  What’s wrong?”  But she just shook and cried.  We had no clue.

     After several minutes of asking questions that got no answers we called over the little girls who had been playing nearby to see if they knew anything.  Timidly, two little girls came to us.  The tiniest girl in the class looked at me with quivering lips and she tried to explain.  But words failed her, too.

     “Did she fall?” I asked.  The little girl shook her head.

     “Did you hurt her?” my co-teacher asked.

     Finally, one of the two girls spoke up.  “We were just playing witches, that’s all.  And we said it was time for lunch.  And we said witches usually eat people for lunch, and Hannah thought we were going to eat her.  But we were just pretending. I promise we weren’t going to eat her. I promise.” 

     I asked Hannah, “Did you think the girls were going to eat you?”  She stopped shaking long enough to finally whisper, “Yes.”  I gave her a hug and reassured her that it was just a pretend game, and that the other little girls were her friends.  There were hugs all around.  The crying stopped, and Hannah was ready to run back and play.

     The remorse-stricken, pretend little witch looked like she expected a prison sentence to be handed down for causing so much anguish and wailing.  I whispered to her that when they play pretend maybe she should make sure that everyone playing the game knows it is pretend.  She nodded soberly and went back to join the other girls.

     Cannibalism is just not a big problem in preschool and as teachers, we were pretty sure that the two little girls were not planning to really eat their friend. I’m sure the girls never even  guessed that Hannah would believe it and be terrified. But Hannah took it at face value.

     It is hard for preschoolers to sort out fact and fantasy.  There is such a fuzzy line between real and pretend when you are young.  Some things that we consider very obviously pretend aren’t so obvious when you are three or four.  Television, movies, games, all look so real when they show scary creatures, and it’s hard not to think that everything is just how it looks.  Especially at Halloween we invite ghosts and witches into our family rooms, and bats and vampires on to our porches.  We need to make sure our preschool children understand how much is just pretend.

     Pretend is actually a good thing at times. Learning to play make-believe can be an important step in the creative process.  But it is important to also talk a lot about what is real, and what might look real but is only a pretend story, like witches having children for lunch. 

     Children actually love Halloween and dressing up as a pretend character, and they so want you to believe they are the real super hero, fireman or princess.  Children even love things that are just the tiniest bit scary, but only when the scariness is in control, like shouting “Boo” at the end of a song about ghosts.  Even babies like “peek-a-boo” games. But scary is only fun when children feel genuinely safe, and talking to preschoolers about it can make the difference.  No one wants to believe they might be eaten on the playground.

© Diane L. Mangum 2000