On any given day, your child and his preschool pals divide cookies or pretzels into equal piles for snacks. They build bridges and tall towers with wooden blocks. They string beads into colorful patterns. They weigh the class rabbit and measure the length and width of its cage. They learn to balance a seesaw when one child is heavier than another. They discover which trucks are too big to fit in the toy garage and compare the number of shells they find at the beach.

Preschoolers do math even though they are not sitting at desks with workbooks or memorizing multiplication tables. Math is helping them to make sense of the world around them and teaching them to reason and problem solve. It’s not limited to a specific period or time of day, says Marilou Hyson, associate executive director for professional development at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Instead it is a natural part of young children’s play and daily activities. They explore mathematical concepts as they sort, classify, compare quantities, balance blocks, notice shapes, and find patterns.

Preschool teachers build on children’s prior knowledge and capitalize on their spontaneous discoveries to further their understanding of mathematical concepts. As children build with blocks, their teacher introduces the concepts of higher, lower, in front of, behind, larger, smaller, equal, horizontal, vertical, parallel, odd, and even, says Mary Jane Belt, a teacher in Long Island, New York. When the class does an art project, such as putting feathers on the outline of a duck, the teacher might say the duck needs six feathers for his tail. One child puts on two feathers and a second child puts on three. The teacher then asks, “How many feathers does the duck have? Let’s count them. Does he need more? How many?” When children are in the literacy area listening to a story, the teacher might ask: “How many elephants do you see on this page? How many do you see with their trunks in the air? How many have babies with them?”

The NAEYC and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics have outlined the following as particularly important parts of mathematical learning in preschool:

  • Numbers: Children learn about numbers by counting objects and discussing the results: “You gave Chris six goldfish crackers. How many does Susie need?” Children count spaces on board games. They count the days until their birthdays. The teacher might say, “Yesterday there were 12 days until your birthday. How many days are there now?” Preschoolers read counting books and recite nursery rhymes with numbers.
  • Geometry and spatial relations: Children practice constructing shapes and discussing their properties. They see skinny triangles and fat triangles and upside-down triangles and gradually realize that they are all still triangles.
  • Measurement: Children compare the height of a block tower with the height of a desk or table. They measure each other and the distance from the kitchen corner to the water table. They learn that this block is too short to make a bridge over the road. Teachers reinforce children’s findings by asking questions and making observations: “I wonder if this block is long enough to bridge the road. Let’s try it.”
  • Patterns/geometry: Children become aware of patterns in their clothes. They learn to recognize patterns of different colors and sizes in beads and blocks. They practice reproducing simple patterns by stringing beads and copying designs with colored blocks.
  • Analyzing data: Children sort objects by color, size and shape; count them; and record the data on graphs and charts. These charts might reflect the class pet’s growth, the number of rainy days in February, how many bean plants have sprouted, or the number of children with a birthday in March.

10 ways to help at home

  1. Show how math relates to daily life. Involve them in measuring ingredients when you cook or in figuring out if a container is big enough to hold their toy cars and trucks.
  2. Play board games using dice or play money. Help your child count out the spaces to move his piece on the board. Play simple card games like Go Fish.
  3. Count things at home and on the street: cars, books, toys, silverware. Count objects in book illustrations.
  4. Call attention to different patterns and shapes: plaids, polka dots, paisleys, and triangular and rectangular shapes in the sidewalk.
  5. Use terms such as above, beneath, level, larger, smaller, and equal, and words such as horizontal, vertical, perpendicular, and parallel, to describe things you see. You might ask your child to bring you the smallest cookie or to find the book beneath the large table in the living room.
  6. Take your child to the supermarket with you and involve her in comparing prices.
  7. When you balance your checkbook or pay bills, explain to your child what you are doing.
  8. Take your child to the bank with you and let him watch you count money from the ATM.
  9. Weigh and measure your child and make a chart to record her growth.
  10. Buy a set of hardwood blocks for your children to build with (look for a secondhand one if new ones are too pricey). The educational benefits of blocks are unlimited; they will be one of the best investments you make.