Why Early Math Is As Important As Early Reading?

You may often see parents, reciting poems, singing lullabies, consistently playing the A B C D tape, teaching the children that the apple is red in colour and a lot of other things from infancy. But how often do you see them teaching that there are 3 red apples, if you eat 1, how many red apples will be left? Yes, exactly the point. Parents start developing the literacy skills of their children from a very early age but ignore the numeracy skills.

They think that numeracy skills can wait, but the child must learn to read and speak first. Undoubtedly, reading is important for the overall development of your young one, but math is equally important. You must be wondering why early math is as important as early reading, you will find your answers here.

Why Early Math Is Important?

According to a study conducted on American Preschools, it was calculated that, of the 6 hours that a child spends at the preschool, on average, math gets only 58 seconds per day. So you see, it’s not just the parents, but the schools also take math lightly, saving it for higher classes. And this is precisely where they are making the wrong decision. And the problem is not limited to this, a lot of parents think that math is limited to numbers and if their 3-year-old knows 1 to 10 by heart, that is good enough math to start with.

Math is a lot more than simply 1 to 10 for young children. It is also about shapes, size, basic addition, subtraction, measurement, etc. Just as early reading builds the base for further development, early math prepares the foundation for further academics and critical thinking.

According to an article published by Beth Casey, a professor at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, “It is important to teach the children more than numbers, especially around the age of three. You need to teach them to understand and relate to the numbers and not just memorise them. Counting small groups, recognising different shapes, sizes and measurements, develops the child’s brain to understand further complex number concepts in higher grades.”

How To Get Started With Teaching Early Math?

As stated earlier, math is a lot more than reciting 1 to 10. While teaching basic math skills and early math concepts you should keep the following points in mind:

• Of course, basic counting is important
• Teach them about quantity, what is more, or less
• Teach them basic shape recognition like square, circle, triangle, etc
• Give them the basic understanding of spatial relations like front-back, above-below, over-under, etc
• Teach them to identify basic measurements like tall-short, big small, etc
• Teach them to recognise patterns and colours.

All of this should be included in the early math lessons you plan for your kids. And remember, only teaching is not important, the aim is to make them understand the concept. If you simply show them a colour chart every day and repeatedly show them, this is red and that is yellow, they probably might learn the names of the colours but not identify them. Child Abuse And Protection

Therefore, you need to take a creative approach to instill basic math skills in your child at an early age. Children are very inquisitive and eager to know everything. The grasping power of a child at an early age is very strong. If the basic concepts are clear at the beginning, they will never face issues later. While giving early math education, teach them in a fun way like the ball they play with is round in shape and green in color. The yellow banana is taller than the red apple. If they have 4 candies and give 2 candies to their friends, they will be left with 2 candies. This way of teaching not only helps them memorize but also clears the concepts.

Professor of Child Development at the Erikson Institute and principal investigator of the Early Math Collaborative, Dr Jie-Qi says, “Math is a language of logic, it builds reasoning skills that further leads to comprehension. It is critical that we build a mentally organized way of thinking in children. And this is possible only by providing early math education.”

Early Math At Kumon

The Kumon Method of teaching takes a completely different approach. We believe in self-learning and provide programs with the aim to fully pursue the potential of individual students. We allow the students to study independently at their own pace and groom them to become confident and smart individuals.

At Kumon, we understand that each student is unique and has different needs, therefore our expert instructors always assist an individual based on their ability and learning capacity. Our personalized worksheets help the students to see their progress and gradually as they start achieving higher scores, their confidence level boosts and they are more enthusiastic about learning and doing better.

The Math Program offered at Kumon aims at developing the math skills of the student from an early age and building a strong foundation for further academic success. Based on the learning and understanding capabilities of a student, our math program helps students to progress towards high school level math concepts and developmental calculation, analytical skills, and logical thinking. To know more about the Kumon Method of learning and Math Program, attend our parent orientation and free assessment sessions.