View posts by our current and past bloggers to gain valuable insights into the developing brain and learn about activities that you can easily incorporate into your early childhood curriculum to foster the development of early math skills in young learners.
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“One, two, three, flip!” “I win!” shouts Matif. Remember playing War as a child? It’s simple and fun and it teaches young children how to win and lose without a lot of drama. I love playing cards with young children because that little deck helps foster the development of early math and social-emotional skills […]
“I think that wolf should go in this row, with the pigs,” protests five-year-old Harper. “What? Why? He’s a wolf, not a pig!” insists Harrison. “And he’s not pink!” chimes in three-year-old Evelyn. “The wolf will go with the pigs in this row for ‘Stories,’” explains Harper. “You know, like in that book, The […]
“Go around the tree, through the tunnel, over the rocks, under the parachute and onto the swing. Then throw a beanbag through the hula hoop and run and touch the fence. The first person to do that WINS!” I listen as five-year-old Juan walks his eager friend through the steps of the obstacle course […]
Do you have collectors in your midst? Those young children who can turn a five-minute walk into a 15-minute treasure hunt? The children who fill their pockets with treasures and then load up your pockets with the overflow? I love these kids. They can wreak havoc with our daily schedules, but they help us […]
“Can we play with those counting things today?” Two bubbly three-year-olds are standing in front of me with expectant smiles on their faces. I have absolutely no idea what they talking about—or what’s going on in those busy little brains, which I can almost hear whirring with activity. “What counting things are you looking […]
Do your early learners know how to play Garbage, a fun and engaging card game that helps young children—especially preschoolers and kindergartners—strengthen their early math skills? A game of Garbage usually involves two players and a standard deck of cards with the jokers removed. For our youngest learners, we also remove the face cards […]
“Why is there dirt in the snow?” asks Seana as we hike through some freshly fallen snow speckled with dirt and debris. “Maybe it blew off of a roof?” Anthony suggests. “I think it came from the birds and squirrels,” Elijah chimes in. “Or maybe the wind blew it off of the trees?” guesses […]
“Did you get new blocks?” four-year-old Marlo shouts as she makes a beeline for a table piled high with SumBlox, our newest early math learning tool. Without waiting for an answer, she begins stacking the blocks into a tower. Suddenly she stops and asks: “Hey! Are these numbers?” “Yep, they are number blocks,” I […]
“How many marshmallows would you like with your hot chocolate, Miss?” asks Cody, imitating a waiter in a fine restaurant as he holds out a tray of yellow pompoms. “Can I have five, please?” Makenzie responds. “One, two, three, four, five . . . there you go!” says Cody as he counts out the pretend […]
“Here’s a circle!” calls out two-year-old Eleanor. “My mom calls that a cylinder, and it goes over here,” says four-year-old Nadia. “A silly-der?” Eleanor is puzzled. The room erupts in laughter as Nadia gently corrects her: “No, Eleanor, it’s a cylinder.” Eleanor gamely gives it another try. “Oh, a silly-her?” she asks with a giggle, […]