Young children explore everything, challenge their bodies to jump and climb, and ask millions of questions. They also try to understand the world in mathematical ways. They learn about more and less, number words, and counting, just like they learn to walk and talk. Take advantage of your child’s natural curiosity about numbers. Encourage your child to explore and play with math!

Math can be challenging, but the challenge is part of what makes it fun. It’s like the challenge of doing puzzles, playing cards, or climbing a mountain. Sometimes people are afraid to get wrong answers in math. Explain to your child, “It’s okay to make mistakes. That’s how we learn.” Puzzling over math questions, thinking, and reasoning are more important than getting right answers, especially the first time around. Encourage your child to keep on trying. Make doing math fun!

You’ve probably heard people say, “I never could do math” or “I’m not a math person.” Maybe you’ve even said one of these things yourself. But you’ve probably never heard anyone admit, “I’m not a reading person.” Everyone knows that reading is important, but math is, too. Math is a big part of everyday life. We use it when we read graphs in the newspaper, handle money, and build a bookshelf. Math opens the door to many careers, such as architecture, engineering, and business. It influences how we reason about almost everything. Everyone is a math person!

Everything becomes more interesting and worthwhile to children when they are doing it with people who love and care about them. Math is no exception. Doing math with your child allows you to learn math all over again, and maybe even understand it better this time. Show your child how enjoyable and valuable math can be. Have fun learning together!