When should I teach my kiddo math?

Recently, I had a friend reach out to me about her homeschooled children. She said that since I’m THE math expert, she’d love to hear my opinion about her plans to homeschool her preschoolers in the coming years. (While that seemed to put a lot of pressure on me, I was curious to hear what she had to say.)

She said that since she didn’t  really like math growing up, and since she rarely used it in daily activity, she should probably not spend too much time on math with her  preschoolers (who would be 5 in the Fall) at the beginning of their homeschool journey. Instead when they can fully read and write -maybe when they are six, seven, or even older – she would then begin teaching them the basic math like adding and subtracting.

[Insert very deep breath and heavy heart here.]

I’ve written before on this blog about conflicting emotions that I have over teaching / learning math. This is one of those…

In all of the research that I’ve done, I know that it’s better to wait until the kiddo is ready to learn to teach them. Every kiddo is different, and ready to learn at a different time and a different pace. But to completely ignore a subject altogether… is that really ideal? And to teach a kiddo to read, but not teach them how to count…

I’m skeptical. Here’s why:

First, imagine that you have spent the last two years only cooking for your family. (The rest of the household chores were done by someone else, and yes you took breaks, you didn’t cook all day.) Then one day, your family said, you know what?! You need to cook and mop the floors and vacuum the carpets. I’m not sure that you would be thrilled with this new added duty at the start, would you?

Whether we want to admit it or not, math does not have the best reputation. (And with kiddos already being predisposed to a parent who has said that she’s never really been good at math and never really liked it… I’m sure that these kiddos are no different.) Whether we talk about it to our children or not, the kiddos hear and sense our feelings towards math. Let’s think about how they would feel if they’ve spent 2 years, or more, falling in love with reading and writing – because that’s your passion – and then you introduce “mopping the floors.”

Second, what happens if the children don’t learn how to read within the first two years of homeschooling? We know that different kiddos learn at different times. What if it takes your kiddos 3 or 4 years to be fluent readers and writers? Are you not going to teach them math or science or history or art until they are fluent readers, no matter how long it takes them to read?

Third, think of all the basic math that can be taught/learned before they are fluent readers. Counting! That’s a big deal. Counting by ones, by tens, by hundreds, by twos, by fives, etc. Having kiddos learn how to skip count by numbers builds the foundations for addition and multiplication. Learning how to tell the time is “math.” Don’t we want our kiddos to be able to read a clock – even if it’s digital?

But then here’s where my heart feels something else. If you pick up any math book – whether it’s a public school edition textbook or my middle school curriculum – you’re likely going to see LETTERS and numbers. And if you can’t read, solving problems or even learning the steps to solve a math problem will be really hard.

I’m just as torn now, writing this blog post, as I was when my friend approached me a few weeks ago.

Here’s my recommendation: If you’re not sure that you should be doing math book work with your little one at such a young age, then consider playing some math games. For example, my 5 year old son and I play dominoes frequently. He knows all the combinations to make 5 and that’s his goal. We keep points and he practices writing numbers. That’s math!

And if you need additional math games to play with your kiddo while they learn to be fluent readers here’s a list:

Proof! Instead of using the whole deck, only use the numbers 0-20. Have the kiddos find the numbers that come one after another, instead of playing it the traditional way. Continue to add more numbers as the kiddos get older, or ask the kiddo to add numbers with a sum of 10 or 20.

War! Yes I know that this is an adult game, but hear me out on this one. Use only the number cards. Kiddos have to tell you which number is higher. This builds great number sense at an early age. Eventually, you can use the black cards as positive numbers and the red cards as negative numbers, but that will happen when they are older.

Fraction War! I love this game! And so do many of my students! It’s a quick and fast paced game AND it involves fractions?! It’s got the same rules as regular war, but uses fractions. You can use the images on the cards for younger kiddos. This really helps build a positive feeling toward fractions at a young age.

Good luck out there fellow homeschoolers!