Mathematics for early learners

Just posting the link on Australian Mathematics Competition for enthusiastic problem solvers.
We try to introduce mathematics to our kid at early age to familiarize him with numbers.
Suggestions include teaching numbers since young, he could initially count up to 100 and expanding his knowledge on numbers. Whenever we go shopping, we expose him to the prices and try to teach him the decimal points. We also teach him the decimal points while checking his height and weight. We gave him a measuring tape to let him check the height and width of things around him. While he explore, we introduce him the units of measurement such as meters and grams. Another fun ways of teaching numbers are while cooking. I show him how many cups of rice are needed for cooking. And how much sugar to add to make a cake. We can expand further by asking how much sugar we need if we need to make 2 cakes.

Invest in a board and write up numbers and questions for your kids to solve. We teach our kid simple arithmetic and every now and we write up some questions on the board and let him solve it whenever he feels like it.

We can even teach arithmetic while travelling on cars or trains. We give him an equation and ask him to keep the first number 'in his mind' and calculate the solution by adding or subtracting the other numbers using his fingers.

Board games such as Sum Swamp is a great example to teach your kids arithmetic. As his interest grew, we introduce negative numbers and fraction as well. Once he has grasped simple arithmetic, he can count with negative numbers as well.

Then, we move on to multiplication. You can arrange numbers by 10 and ask him to list the numbers in tens. This is how I thought him multiplication of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10. Another great way to teach multiplication is by using beads. We can ask kids to arrange beads of fours and ask them to solve some questions.

I always bring my son to buy groceries, and there I teach him the prices of vegetables and fruits. I also expose him to discounts and unit price of each items. Teaching kids the many types of coins and cash is a great way of teaching numbers too. I often ask my son to solve problems using coins. For instance what is 20 cents plus 20 cents? Is it the same as 20 cents plus two 10 cents?

There are plenty of ways to teach kids mathematics. If we integrate mathematics with everyday life, it will be easier for them to grasp and perhaps master the skills in the future