March 6 is Maths Day. My degree is in Education and English Literature, so this was a day I wasn't too excited about to start.
Since it is not my area of expertise, I did a little research about how to first introduce mathematics to a baby. I ran into this article called Math for Babies? What You Need to Know. It asserted that objects like shakers help babies build basic skills in numeracy by helping them connect that one shake equals one sounds, two shakes equal two sounds, etc.
We play with shakers a lot, but we don't really count them out. So, we took a little time to play with the shakers and be purposeful in what we were getting out of it. I would shake my shaker ones and say one. I then said "one shake" and helped Jude shake the shaker once. We did that all the way up to ten.
Sometimes I feel like I am going overboard in what I explain to Jude, but I know in my heart that at the very least the exposure to technical words (like mathematics and pattern for example) are helping build a strong vocabulary foundation for the future.
I found a second article from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) called Math Talk with Infants and Toddlers. It gives a lot of ways to introduce the concept of math to a baby in everyday life. I talked to Jude while we ate.
Some phrases I used during dinner:
- Here is half of your sandwich. Here is the other half.
- I have 3 goldfish and you have 2. I have more than you do. I will eat one. Now we both have equal numbers of goldfish.
- You are sitting across from me while we eat. Mickey is next to you.
I was pleased with how much I was implicitly doing to help Jude with his math skills. Regardless of what I teach him now, I am keeping my fingers crossed that he gets his Dad's math mind!
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