Dear Parents / Guardians,
Here are some ideas for helping your child with number. All activities can be made as easy or as
hard as is necessary.
1.
Count out loud with your child up as far as they can go (or you have the energy for)! Be
careful at the end of each decade. Children often get confused with the transition from 19 to 20, 29
to 30 etc.
2.
Count on from different numbers. (Example: count on from 3- Child puts 3 in their head and
says 4,5,6,7,8 …… until you ask them to stop.)
3.
Count back from different numbers. (Example: count back from 10- Child puts 10 in their
head and says 9,8,7,6,5 …. Until you ask them to stop.)
4.
Ask your child what number comes right after 3. Or right after 7? Also ask them what
number comes right before 5, or 12?
5.
Sing number songs like 10 Green Bottles, 5 Little Monkeys etc
6.
Play Finger Fun. (Your child will show you how.)
7.
Ask your child to count things regularly (spoons, buttons, books, trees, cars, potatoes,
sweets, shells – whatever you can think of!)
8.
Practise adding. Your child might need to use real objects or fingers to find how many
altogether. Or they may be able to count on in their head.
9.
Practise simple subtraction by counting real objects or fingers then taking away some and
counting those left.
10.
Also the following websites have some good maths games:
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www.topmarks.co.uk
Woodlands junior school
BBC Schools (a bit harder to navigate)
www.starfall.com – also great for practising reading
Please don’t feel like you need to do all the above in one go! They’re just some quick ideas for when
you have five or ten minutes to spare. Good luck!