There are so many fun and creative ways in which you can support your child with learning maths at home. Many of the ideas below include everyday items which you will likely already have in your home already or may not need any resources at all! 

Early Years

• Look out for all numbers you see around the house.
• Count how many steps there are from the gate to the front door or around the garden and talk about the differences in the size of your steps.
• As you tidy up, encourage your child to arrange toys and books in order of size.
• Count how many things are in the fridge or the cupboard.
• Count how many star jumps, hops, times you can write your name or how tall you can build a Lego tower for example, in one minute and compare to other members of the family.
• Investigate different coins and talk about their value.
• Set up a pretend shop with some food items or toys.
• Point out the time on the clock, particularly at breakfast, dinner or bedtime.
• Go on a shape hunt in the house or on a local walk.
• Put a teddy in different places and use words or clues to describe its position e.g. inside, under, next to and above.
• find numbers around your home and neighbourhood e.g. clocks, letterboxes and speed signs.

Key Stage 1 and 2

• Play board games which need the use of dice, such as, Ludo or snakes and ladders.

• Estimate and take their own, your and other family members measurements – height, weight, shoe size.
• Play board games or online games which involve calculating scores.
• Calculate the cost of a home delivery or take away.
• Practise reading measuring scales when baking.
• When baking, encourage your child to explain how they would work out quantities to make the recipe for more or less people. Such as, making 18 cupcakes from a recipe for 6.
• Allow your child to be in charge of setting the timer while you cook together, this will develop skills in estimating time and provide opportunities for calculating time durations.
• Make number sentences using objects such as stones, pasta or marbles e.g. 2 + 3, 4 +1, 5 + 4
• Make up number stories – "You have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. There are 4 of them"
• Use key words in everyday play like "under", "over", "between", "around", "behind", "up", "down", "heavy", "light", "round", "circle", "yesterday", "tomorrow". You can get library books with these words and ideas in them too.
• Create a ‘sorting box’ with all sorts of ‘treasure’ – bottle tops, shells, stones, toys, acorns, cardboard shapes, leaves etc. Ask questions like "How many?", "Which is the biggest group?", "Which is the smallest?", "How many for each of us?"
• Take turns closing your eyes and describing how to get from one place to another. For example, from the front door to the backdoor or from your bedroom to the kitchen.
• Do some timed activities. Set a timer and ask your child to count how many times they can bounce a ball in a minute.
• Play guess (estimate) and check games using different shaped jars – How many beans, buttons, pegs in the container?