How to facilitate learning through the child's home environment

      

    Learning mathematics and other concepts informally in the home environment........

Young children learn mathematics all the time through a wide variety of play experiences. From the time they are born,babies are surrounded by sense impressions. Shapes in particularare of immediate importance: babies react instinctively to the arrangement of shapes which make up the human face.

In the home, in parent and toddler groups, and pre-school settings, children have many opportunities to enjoy and learn mathematics through Play.

“Play is an effective vehicle for fostering Mathematical concepts and developing positive attitudes to mathematics… Adults in the pre-school setting should seek to extend informally the mathematical experiences the children have already had in their home environment.”

Mathematics in the Home Environment:

Mathematics is everywhere in the home. With the support of parents, children can grasp many mathematical concepts through their play.

Children will begin to:

• know and understand early mathematics.
language of measurement, shapes, spaces, positions, early numbers, order and patterns.

• know the sequence of numbers.

• begin to understand positional words, e.g. in, on, outside.

• show an awareness of time.
• be aware of shapes in theirenvironment.

• be aware of 1-to-1 correspondence.

• acquire new vocabulary.

• learn number rhymes and songs, e.g. one, two, buckle my shoe etc.

• be aware of conservation.

When we say a child “knows her numbers” what we often mean is that she can recite the names of numbers in ascending order.

This is quite useful to be able to do, but it means very little in itself.Children need to come to know what the number system really means. They can be helped to do this through play.

Young children have many mathematical experiences in their home environment. For example:

• They learn about money as they go shopping with parents

• become aware of numbers as they count the stairs to bed

• start to understand the concept of time as they become familiar with the routine of their day – wash, dress, breakfast etc.

A child’s daily life offers many practical opportunities to learn about number, shape, space, sorting and matching.
Forinstance:

• setting places at the table – a cup for me, a cup for you

• playing with water

• steering the pram

• helping to sort the washing, matching socks, big shirt / small shirt

• tidying up – putting similar items together

• matching lids to saucepans

Here are a few ways in which you can use play to learn

mathematical concepts.

Sand and Water

• Using sand can develop mathematical concepts and language, e.g. heavy, light, empty, full, big, and little.

• Conservation – how much will it hold

• Make shapes and patterns

• Provide boxes and materials of different shapes and sizes to compare weight and quantity

• Look at the differences between wet and dry as a means of looking at weights

Language

• You can help to promote mathematical language such as –

heavy, light, empty, full,long, short, big, small inrelevant contexts

• Look at your home environment to develop language, especially

positional words – small object in front of big object, behind, in,on.

Dough/clay/plasticine

The use of dough can help to develop a mathematical understanding for pre-school children.

• Develops mathematical language – short, long, fat, thin

• Make shapes of different dimensions – flat shapes, 3-d shapes

• Create opportunities to compare things that float with things that do not.

Imaginative Play

• Simple activities like letting your child set the table for dinner can help develop countingskills,

e.g. getting out three pieces of cutlery.

• Involve your child with household activities.After washing, allow your child to sort clothes into different colors, or different types of clothes, e.g. t-shirts and socks. This will help to develop a child’s knowledge of shapes and colors.

Books and Rhymes 

Enjoy stories and rhymes with your child that has a mathematical element, e.g. “One-two, Buckle my Shoe”,

This can also help to develop literacy skills by showing your child that the print reads from left to right.

Let your child count out items in the books – how many animals are on the page, how many items are blue. Using rhymes can also help develop your Childs awareness of sequencing.

Physical Play

 

• Develop fine motor skills through physical activity, e.g. sorting out a jigsaw, threading beads

• Block play or playing with toy cars can help to develop

sequencing by encouraging your child to sequence according to size, color, use (e.g. bike, car, and lorry)

• Playing with different sized blocks can help to develop an

understanding of weight and dimensions.

• Tidying toys away allows children to sort into different sizes and colors.

• It can also develop mathematical language – first, second, third, how many are blue, which is largest / smallest.
In this way, if children are provided with several learning opportunities and properly guided, it will facilitate building strong mathematical background and help improving their confidence level. It will also help them to  remove fear from the subject of Mathematics.