Parents can be part of kids’ school lives
HOW can parents best help their children with their schooling without actually doing it for them? This article is part of our series on Parents’ Role in Education, focusing on how best to support learning from early childhood to Year 12.
Before beginning official schooling, parents can give their young children a boost in learning maths by noticing, exploring and talking about maths during everyday activities at home or out and about.
New research shows that parents play a key role in helping their children learn maths concepts involving time, shape, measurement and number.
This knowledge, developed before school, is predictive of literacy and numeracy achievements in later grades.
One successful approach for strengthening the role of parents in mathematics learning is Let’s Count, implemented by The Smith Family.
This builds on parents’ strengths and capabilities as the first maths educators of their children.
The Let’s Count longitudinal evaluation findings show that when early years educators encourage parents and families to confidently notice, explore and talk about maths in everyday activities, their young children’s learning flourishes.
Indeed, children whose families had taken part in Let’s Count showed greater maths skills than those in a comparison group whose families had not participated.
For example, they were more successful with correctly making a group of seven (89% versus 63%); continuing patterns (56% versus 34%); and counting collections of 20 objects (58% versus 37%).
Discussing and exploring maths with children requires no special resources. Instead, what is needed is awareness and confidence for parents about how to engage.
However, our research shows that one of the biggest barriers to this is parents’ lack of confidence in leading maths education at home.
Through examining international research, we identified the type of activities that are important for early maths learning which are easy for parents to use. These include: Comparing objects and describing which is longer, shorter, heavier, or holds less.
Playing with and describing 2D shapes and 3D objects. Describing where things are positioned, for example, north, outside, behind, opposite. Describing, copying and extending patterns found in everyday situations.
Using time-words to describe points in time, events and routines (including days, months, seasons and celebrations).
Comparing and talking about the duration of everyday events and the sequence in which they occur.
Saying number names forward in sequence to ten (and eventually to 20 and beyond).
Although these activities may seem simple and informal, they build on what children notice and question, give families the chance to talk about maths ideas and language, and show children that maths is used throughout the day.