Parent tips to develop math skills for kids in pre-kindergarten through second grade

At DreamBox Learning, we support parents with ways to participate in their children’s math learning at home. In that spirit, we want to provide everyday activities for parents to explore with their young children. (In fact, when you subscribe to DreamBox, you’ll get regular academic progress emails that include tips for family activities that reinforce the specific lessons your child is learning.)

Parents can help develop math skills no matter what their child’s age by exploring the math in the world around them.

Give your child plenty of opportunities to count

• Play number games during everyday activities, such as counting the number of steps, counting the number of items going in the laundry, or counting the number of trucks you see while driving
• Read the calendar, and determine the number of days until an upcoming event. With older children, count by 7’s
• Plan a shopping list and shop for items that fit your budget
• Young children can count the number of items that you bought at the store
• Read a recipe and have your child measure the amounts for the ingredients
• Have your child practice counting the change needed to pay for an item

Help your child recognize shapes and size relationships

• At the grocery store, ask your child to find items that are triangles, circles, rectangles, and other shapes
• Ask your child to recognize or stack the groceries you bought by container shape

Find ways to collect and organize information

• Read weather charts, movie schedules, number tables you find in the newspaper, or other common information
• Take measurements for a project around the house
• Have your child help sort the laundry by various categories — by color, or by who an item belongs to
• As you’re shopping, compare the amounts in the Nutrition Facts on packaged foods
• Compare and organize tools, dishes, or other objects based on size, color, or weight

Some family games that use math skills:

• Most card games require counting and score keeping
• Dominos
• Mancala
• Checkers and Chinese Checkers
• Cribbage
• Any game that includes counting board steps, such as Chutes and Ladders

Read more about how math games benefit:

• Kindergartners
• 1st graders
• 2nd graders

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