Math skills are important not just for academic life but in every aspect of life. As a parent, we want our children to be smart, intelligent, confident and self-dependent. And not all these qualities can be taught through academic content or in schools. If you wish your child to have these qualities, you should develop basic literacy and numeracy skills in your kid from the very beginning. These skills not just help the child in the academic field, but also makes their mind sharp, builds logical and critical thinking skills and teaches them to make the right decisions.
Often parents take literacy and numeracy skills lightly thinking that these can be postponed until the child starts going to school. It is important to understand that your child does not learn everything at school. We as educators and parents, need to go a step further in order to make sure our children are growing up in the right manner with the right habits and skills and basic math skills are an important part of this.
Now you must be wondering, what are the basic math skills that everyone should have? Below is the answer to this. Here is a list of basic math skills that should be taught to every child from an early age.
Basic Math SKills
Parents play an important role in their child’s math education. Parents are the role models for their children, they learn and adopt what they see. If they see you including math skills in daily life, they will not only be intrigued to adopt these skills, but will also be excited to learn these skills. According to the experts and researchers, the following skills are the basic math skills that every child should have.
1. Counting And Cardinality:
According to the experts, a child should be able to count till at least 20 before starting pre-school. This may sound too much, but it is not actually that difficult. You can easily teach counting till 20 by doing daily activities lile
- Asking the kids to count their toys
- Ordering the cards in the correct order
- Guessing the number of items without actually counting them
- Clearing the basic that even if the order of the items change, the number of items does not change
- Ask them to read number plates while driving, etc.
Teaching basic counting should not e taken up as a task, rather it should be included as a daily fun time or game.
2. Operations and Algebraic Basics:
The word “Algebraic Basics” might have got you worried. But do not worry. We are not talking about real algebra equations and formulas. It’s simple calculations like addition or subtraction. Before children begin kindergarten, they should be able to do basic calculations like addition and subtraction. It could even be as simple as adding numbers of objects or counting how many candies are left out of 5 if they ate 3, etc.
3. Numbers In Base 10:
By early schooling years, children should be able to understand that the number 10 is made up of “Ten” “Ones”. One of the best ways to make the children understand this concept is, counting the number of fingers and toes. Another great way to teach this concept is money and coins. They can play the game of buying toys. Like fix a price of Rs 1, 2, 3 or 4 for 3-4 toys and ask them to buy toys worth 10 Rs.
4. Measurement Basic:
Another basic math skill that every child should learn in their early years is measurement. Involve the kids in activities like recognising the shape of the objects, differentiating between big and small, identifying the colour, etc. Also, kids should be able to compare objects and understand concepts like more than, less than, longer than, shorter than, heavier or lighter, etc.
5. Geometry Skills:
Children in their early schooling years should have the basic knowledge of naming and identifying 2D shapes. They should be able to understand that shapes like boxes or balls are 3D objects. By pre-schooling, kids should be able to identify basic geometric shapes like squares, circles, triangles, etc. One good way of teaching the 2D, 3D and basic shapes is through puzzle blocks.
The basic math skills that children learn in their early childhood and schooling years is actually the strong base built for further academic and life success. If you are looking to build a strong base and teach basic math skills to your children in a fun loving way, attend the parent orientation and free assessment programme of Kumon and learn more about the Kumon Method of teaching. We at Kumon, understand that every child is unique and has different needs when it comes to learning. So we offer a personalized and unique approach to learning and teaching for every child, that not just clears their concepts but groom them to become smart and confident individuals.