I have been busy these past couple of months writing some online training modules for early childhood practitioners about young children and math. These will eventually be available through the INCCRRA/Gateways training site and will be free of charge. Should be cool. One of the things I keep reading about is how certain skills and […]
Subitizing is one of those words that nobody has ever heard of, even teachers of young children and mathematicians. However, readers of the Early Math Counts blog will now know it and teach it to others, because it is a very important early math skill and we should be very deliberate in teaching it. Remember […]
Last week I was visiting a student at her center so I could observe an activity that she planned. While observing my student at one table with several children, a 3 or 4-year-old girl was very busy at the table behind me, organizing and sorting, and lining up all sorts of small math counters. It […]
My guess is that most of you are familiar with the Zero to Three group which is a national organization that is focused exclusively on the health and welfare of infants and toddlers and families. Their website is really informative for both parents and caregivers. According to the website, ZERO TO THREE is a national, […]
Have you ever considered the ways in which toddlers play and explore and how those very actions are often mathematical? When a toddler takes two objects and brings them together to play, he is creating a relationship between them. Sometimes, the two objects are not meant to go together; think – a small wooden block […]
Much like the “Bucket Sorter” the Soft House is designed so that infants and toddlers can put things inside and take things out. I have seen these with all sorts of themes, but my absolute favorite was a “Noah’s Ark” soft house that was filled with pairs of animals. My first son’s name is Noah […]
My friend Kate posted this on her fb page over the weekend and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how much my boys would have LOVED this game when they were little. First, they were cuckoo for Legos. Second, the addition of a “game” dimension to an all-time favorite, would have made them […]
As we continue to explore the special relationship between infants and caregivers in child care, I thought we could look at consistency as the foundation on which all mathematical concepts are built for our youngest children. If you think about it, a baby’s day is broken down into fairly simply parts. There is eating, there […]
Did you know that the Early Math Counts site has dozens of math lessons specifically written for infants? It does. Infants experience mathematical concepts through their daily interactions and schedules. Infant teachers know that the consistency of care they provide for their babies creates the foundation for building trust. It also develops a strong foundation […]
As the days unfold during the first year of life, infants repeatedly experience personal care routines that will set the foundation for the development of their first mathematical understandings. Personal care routines refer to the everyday caretaking of the infant, such as feeding, diapering, and sleeping sequences. Each personal care routine has its own rhythm […]