Developing Early Math Skills

This summer, I noticed several great sources of ideas for developing early math skills floating in my Twitter feed. Below are some of the best.

“Developing Early Math Skills” at Zero to Three
This article from the National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families summarizes the skills children need before beginning school and offers a lengthy list of ways for parents and teachers to help them develop these skills.

“Support Math Readiness Through Math Talk” at NAEYC for Families
Developing math skills through talking is the focus of this article from NAEYC for Families. Five tips are included.

“The Importance of Early Math Skills” at Zealous Mom
Susanna Barbee is a wife, mom to two boys, educator, and writer. She blogs at Zealous Mom, and in this post she explains, for parents and teachers, why early math skills are important and describes the types of activities that foster early math skills.

What are some of your best, tried and true ideas for developing students’ math skills?

Possible GELDS Connections:
CD-MA1: The child will organize, represent and build knowledge of number and quantity.
CD-MA2: The child will manipulate, compare, describe relationships and solve problems using number and quantity.
CD-MA3: The child will explore and communicate about distance, weight, length, height and time.
CD-MA4: The child will sort, seriate, classify and create patterns.
CD-MA5: The child will explore, recognize and describe spatial relationships between objects.
CD-MA6: The child will explore, recognize and describe shapes and shape concepts.
CD-MA7: The child will use mathematical problem solving, reasoning, estimation and communication.
CLL4: The child will use increasingly complex spoken language.