What is Number Learning?

“My child is very good at math! She can count all the way to 50!” the parent coos.

It is not uncommon for family members (parents, grandparents etc) and adults (the

neighbour you meet in the lift) to marvel or be proud of how high a child can count.

Yet, while your child may know the sequence of counting words (in the same manner it is essential for your child to know their ABCs), it may not translate into real-life application. Your child may know how to count to five but he or she might not be able to tell that two apples and three bananas make up five fruits.

The goal of number learning is to let them connect the numbers and utilise it to understand numbers in a practical way. Here, we have a few ways you can support number learning in a fun and interactive way with your child.

How to Support Number Learning

Counting with Objects

Counting is a part of life. It is important when teaching numbers to your little one for them to see numbers as part of their everyday life. They need to see a physical connection between what the number and the objects in front of them.

Look for things to count. They can be anything! Some examples include:

• Counting the shoes on the rack.
• Counting the number of utensils when you are setting the table.
• Counting the items when you take them grocery shopping.

Asking Questions when Counting

In addition to the above, asking questions when counting help to reinforce your child’s

understanding of numbers and quantities:

• Can you count and tell me how many biscuits do you have on your plate?
• We have two pieces of carrots here; let’s add three more. Can you tell me how many
• pieces of carrots do you have now?
• I have three pieces of cereals here. Why don’t you take me more pieces of cereals so that I

have nine pieces of cereals in total?

Asking these questions help your child to draw connection between different quantities of

objects. This helps your little one getting quicker and more familiar with numbers.

Size and Measurement

An aspect of number learning is also understanding the correlation between numbers,

whether a number is bigger or smaller than the other.

This can be done when:

• They are filling up a water bottle.
• You are baking or preparing ingredients to be cooked
• Dividing food (e.g. a cake or a pizza) into equal shares

By comparing objects of different sizes – ‘big’, ‘small’ and ‘medium’, you are getting the little

one to equate numbers to size and measurement.

This helps your toddler to understand how and why numbers play an important role in their

daily activities.

Ultimately, children learn best when they’re interested or engaged in an activity. It does not

have to be the examples listed above.

If your child is doing something that he or she is particularly interested in – whether it involves Lego, dinosaurs, dogs, cars, dolls, balls, books or whatever – you can utilise these items and explore numbers with him while he plays.

This would ensure that your child is able to get a grasp of numbers early on in his or her childhood and make the transition to Mathematics in Primary School much smoother. As evidenced, it is important to start learning numbers from a young age.

Who knows? As you do the activities with your child, you might just very well discover that he or she is a Math whiz à la the next Albert Einstein!