Introduce your preschool child to math

As early as two years old, but at least by age five, children should be introduced to a range of math essentials. Your child can learn to recognize numbers, count objects, and understand number sequence to some extent (for example: counting to 10, and knowing that 2 comes after 1). He/She can also learn basic shapes and identify them in his/her world (for example: "My bed is a rectangle. The sun is a circle.")

Do this: Place a variety of small food items — raisons, nuts, dried beans, crackers, grapes, berries, or whatever you have on hand — and ask your child to separate them into small bowls. Now have your child count three of each of the food items onto a clean surface. How many total items are there? How many will there be if he adds two more of each item? What if he eats two? Make the game low-key and playful. (Allow plenty of snacking!) Follow your child's lead; maybe he wants to shape the items into faces, or divide them according to preference, or stack them into towers. Encourage him to count out the items as he plays, ask simple addition and subtraction questions, and point out number sequences. The goal of the game is simple: hands-on, and tasty, number fun.