How are Your Preschooler's Math Skills Shaping Up?

What You Need To Know

Children come in all shapes and sizes and so do their toys. Can your child appreciate the differences in the shapes and sizes around them? Here are some widely held expectations for children in the age group of 3-5.

• Learning shapes.
• Classifies and sorts different shapes.
• Child develops spatial sense.
• Uses comparison words correctly.
• Uses words describing the relative position of things.
• Groups objects and can give reason for groupings.

• Can names simple shapes (circle, square, triangle, etc.) in various sizes and positions.
• Uses descriptive words (on, off, on top of, under, in, out, behind etc.)
• Compares various sizes of unit blocks (longer, shorter, same length) to build math skills.

How You Can Help

Children more so than adults have their hands on all sorts of objects on a daily basis. Making your child aware of their differences in size and shape can be an enlightening moment for them and help down the road in school. Here are some things to do at home  to encourage your child’s interest in Geometry and spatial relations.

• Provide child with blocks of various shapes and sizes to learn comparisons.
• Encourage child to create designs with pattern blocks and cut shapes for artwork projects.
• Have child return blocks to toy bin by sorting them.
• Take a walk outside and help your child identify the triangular shape of a roof or the rectangular shape of a house window.
• Provide empty boxes, tubes and containers for children to use in
  creating and constructing. (Empty paper towel rolls are great creative tools for learning)

Helping your child identify geometric shapes is easier than you think. The kitchen is full of hidden geometric gems. Remember the three 3 C’s: counting, comparing and coming up with conclusions will help build a child’s brain in the area of Geometry.

For more on this topic, see the complete article:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/geometry-mathematics-age-three-five/