Hey y’all! Being a busy, working mama of two I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed by all of the things you want to teach, show, and expose to your child. I often hear (and feel this myself), “When do I have the time to teach my child x, y, and z?” The answer is you don’t always have the time to do things the way we are sometimes made to feel like we need to do them. You also may not have the resources or the desire to sit down and teach your child lessons. And you know what… your child probably doesn’t have the desire to sit down for a traditional lesson either.

Instead, we can build in a lot of these activities and lessons naturally into our everyday life making it stress free for everyone involved.

Being a math teacher (so obviously a lover of math), I am excited to share with you simple ways you can incorporate math activities into your everyday life without feeling like you are going overboard. And my guess is you are probably already doing some of these things… so hats off to you, boo!

Everyday Math for Toddlers:

• Sort cutlery
• Match socks or pj tops to bottoms while doing laundry
• Repeat sound patterns (ex. bah, bah, bahhhhh, bah, bah, bahhhhh) verbally or by stomping and clapping (ex. stomp, stomp, clap, stomp, stomp, clap) and asking what the next sound would be in the pattern
• Point out different shapes and sizes in things like crackers or footprints (“this cracker is a circle and this one is a square” or “whose footprint is bigger, yours or mine?”)
• Organize while cleaning up toys (the train parts go in this bin and the animals go in this one)
• Build puzzles
• Count everyday objects such as buttons on a shirt as you are buttoning them or stairs as you are climbing them
• Measure food for cooking and baking (it’s okay if your toddler doesn’t understand what a fraction of a cup is just yet)
• Compare the weight of objects (which one is heavier?)

The goal here is expose your child to numerical, spatial, and logical thinking using everyday concepts. Keep in mind, they are only toddlers, so we need to make it accessible and fun for them to engage with while keeping it simple enough for them to understand and eventually master.

This idea of keeping it simple is also a plus for you because it means you don’t need to set up huge activities or come up with super creative concepts. You can simply use the things around you and approach them with a math minded mindset as you interact with your child.

For more ideas like this, be sure to follow along on my instagram @teach_them_young23.

Happy day, y’all!