Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Number and math suggestions?

I'm back with another problem I never thought I would have. My son learned to identify 0-9 at 18 months. I never pushed or even did much with rote counting because, you know, he is ONE! He doesn't need to count. Well, the joke's on me because by 21 months DS had clearly mastered quantities 0-5 from me telling him how many grapes he can have at a time (one!) and asking him to get 2 oranges. Stuff like that.

I've never lined up toys to count past 5 so I have no idea if he can count objects past 5 though he does have the ability to verbally count 0-10 now. Sometimes he misses 6.

I was thinking of starting to show him adding one and subtracting one. Is this a good idea? Is there some other math concept he needs before adding and subtracting one? It's not like he can write or anything so I have not found any math resources geared to his age. Are there any good apps geared to those around age 2?

In other my kid sort of freaks me out news, I can now set out 4-6 piece puzzles in a random order and he can look at all the pieces and tell me what the object is before he ever puts it together to see the whole thing. I feel like this is kind of out there for his age (22 months now!) but I have no comparison. Maybe that's normal? My Mom spidey sense tells me I have a very visual kid.

I have an older son who is really into math/science/engineering. He also learned to count to twenty by the time he was 18 months. He learned how to count three objects because I had a rule that he could't eat more than three pickles in a sitting. I never tried to teach him anything because I thought this was normal but right before he turned three (I remember because his baby brother had just been born) a fire truck passed us and he said, "there are four tires on the truck, so if there are four on the other side, it has eight tires!" I was shocked because I'd never taught him any addition or subtraction. After this, he started talking about it all the time. In the bathtub, he would sit and just calculate "Four plus two is six! Five minus three is two!" Soon after that it became clear that he could do small multiplication and division (he hasn't memorized the times tables, he can visualize it in his head). All this is to say that I'm not sure that you need to teach it. Your child will probably intuitively grasp basic addition and subtraction.

My husband is a mathematician and he is mostly focused on instilling a love of math in our kids so he doesn't teach any math but they talk about interesting concepts together and we read books about math ideas and mathematicians. Through these discussions, my older son has developed a sophisticated grasp of advanced mathematical concepts even if we haven't really focused on teaching any basics.

My second son, who is now 2.5, is similar. He is obsessed with those little counting bears that schools use to teach kids counting. I bought a set with matching cups and they have been his favorite toy for at least four months. He sorts them by color, arranges them in shapes or letters (he tries to spell his name), he makes beds for them and carries them around in a box. I think they are great to play with but also imagine they help him to develop a real understanding of quantities. There are a ton of activities you can find online or in books if you want to use the bears to teach specific concepts. I just let my younger son play with them for now.

Both of my sons love to cook with me and they learned about fractions and measurement this way. I also let them play with measuring cups in the bathtub. My 2.5 year old loves to carry a measuring tape around and measure things and loves to read a book called "Me and the Measure of Things." There is also a similar one about time.

There is a toy called inchimals that are blocks with numbers and animals on them and they also function as rulers. They are fun to build with, play with and also to measure and do some math if your son is interested.

My 2.5 year old loves his numbers place mat. It has numbers from 1-1,000,000. His babysitter (a preschool teacher) was shocked that he can identify numbers up to 100 but he learned them by staring at this place mat and playing games where he insisted that we cover a certain number with a bean or strawberry. This sounds simple but I was shocked a few months ago to discover that my 5 year old's classmates cannot identify numbers up to 100. Again, I thought that was normal behavior.

Finally, let your kid play with lots of blocks and Legos and building toys.

Fingers and toes are also a fun way for young children to visualize simple arithmetic. You can incorporate all kinds of fun sensory and fine motor play into the mix, such as:

Covering fingertips with paint, shaving cream, pudding, etc. Your LO will enjoy executing the operations!

Sorting small pieces of food at meals (Mmm ....subtraction!)

Scooping small objects from bowl to bowl.

Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math is what you're looking for. It explains fun ways of teaching basic numeracy to ages 2-8. It's what's recommended (and sold) by Art of Problem Solving for kids prior to Beast Academy.

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Wrights-Kitchen-Table-Math/dp/0982921128
http://artofproblemsolving.com/store/item/ktm-1

Same for my son who is really talent in maths, and what we do when he was 2 is playing counting in food, e.g. he wants 5 crackers, then i point to his plate and said, "u already have 3 crackers on your plate, how many should i give u to make it 5?" u will be surprise that he answer "2" without thinking :P, that's already addition and subtraction. We always did it when we went to parent co-op preschool (as i don give him crackers, only the sch will give him), when my son was 2.5, he suddenly do additions by counting fingers, after a while, he did mental additions (e.g. 8+7=15).

These are some great ideas!

I tried add one and take away one with orange slices this morning and he apparently already grasped this concept but had not let me in in that little secret.

Many times I feel like no matter what I do I'm two steps behind him. I have no idea if I'm actually just not keeping up with him or if this kid can master things so quickly that it only seems like he has already mastered the concept.

He has also moved into identifying quantities in his head without counting them one by one though I don't know when that happened. It's like he goes to sleep and his brain reboots and he wake up with new skills. It's fascinating and a little scary to watch!