Maths resources for number-loving toddler?

[IsThisYourSanderling]

DS is 2.8 and loves numbers, always has. I'm really stumped finding him new number-related things to get excited about though - he's craving more, but everything is either too familiar or too old / complicated for him. We're OK for books, but I'd love some TV programs/clips to show him.

Too familiar includes Numberblocks and Numbersongs, he knows every episode by heart. And things like Schoolhouse Rock he likes, but they're aimed at much older children so it's a bit beyond him.

He's so desperate for some new thing though! He's recently excited about the numbers up to 100, the existence of 1000, and has started writing numbers (he's very cute and pleased with himself about this).

Any suggestions so welcome!

peg and cat is a good show to watch with him x

Do lots of practical number things. Cook with him and weigh out ingredients, asking how much more of something you need. Take him shopping and work out how much something will cost.

nrich.maths.org/early-years

shop.montessori-supplies.co.uk/

www.brightminds.co.uk/

Shapes - 3D as well as 2D. Looking for shapes in nature
Algebra and coding. Our daughter loves to play detectives and will write in code e.g. start off with a=1 and then backwards z = 1.
At 2.5ish I think we mainly focussed on knowing how many things are that number up to about 20 or 25.

The Happy Puzzles company has some good resources: www.happypuzzle.co.uk
Bright Minds www.brightminds.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_rGJk6zN4gIVorztCh1PjwLyEAAYASAAEgL9rfD_BwE

You can also get some Numicons just do a quick google search, they come up, they have videos etc. Or when he's a bit older you could try Cuisenaire rods. Toys like COunting Cookies or Counting Bears are fab.

You can go on some of the websites for schools and early years and look for resources that might be suitable for him www.edu-quip.co.uk/cat/pre-school-and-primary/curricular/early-numeracy

To be honest I've never been keen on watching stuff on TV or playing games on a tablet, I think children learn a lot better with adult interaction (I'm a retired childminder and one of my DSs is G&T in maths)

Thanks so much everyone for all these leads! Isola try as I might, I can’t get him interested in the practical application of his love of numbers, beyond counting and adding. He has no tolerance for baking whatsoever - happy to eat the end product though

Peg and Cat looks promising, thanks sleep!

Queen thank you, that’s a great list as well. I agree about apps (I’ve never introduced him to games or apps on phones etc as I know he’d become obsessed and I don’t want to be fighting those battles). He absolutely worships Numberblocks though, which he gets while I make dinner. It was one two-minute episode of Numbersongs that has now got him writing the numbers from 1-10, it’s been amazing tbh. It didn’t take long for it to go from ‘thing passively watched on a screen’ to ‘omg, I can MAKE numbers with my crayons’. I can’t actually get him to watch anything other than numberblocks and alphablocks He just knows them too too well now. Waiting patiently for them to make more episodes...

Thanks everyone

Oh those counting bears so look great, the cookies too. I find for this age group everything stops at 10 or 20, so he gets bored quickly.

Numicon looks interesting but I’m aware they use it in schools, so might steer clear. I’m already worried about what’ll happen in school because with numbers he’s about the level of a 5-6 year old (aside from the practical skills - maybe that’ll save him), and can read, so wtf he’s going to do In Year 1 I have no idea

I know you said you have books, but do you have books where you sit and work at them together? DS loves numbers and 2 very successful books we've borrowed from the library are:

www.amazon.co.uk/Treasure-Hunt-Boys-Hidden-Pictures/dp/0312508182/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?s=gateway&keywords=treasure+hunt+for+boys+book&sprefix=treasure+hunt+for+&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1559582864&sr=8-2 where each page has a list of 1 / 2 / 3 etc different objects they have to find, which DS seems to love doing. You can then get them to do simple maths with the different objects (e.g. how many x are there in total).

www.amazon.co.uk/Numbers-Start-Learn-Toby-Reynolds/dp/1445159929/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?s=gateway&keywords=9781445159928&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1559583028&sr=8-1 this one is about using numbers not learning them, it has picture activities (e.g. What's the largest group you can find, how many more).

You can also get workbooks from Collins Easy Learning / Progress with Oxford. As well as the numbers / counting ones there are also some for shapes and size / colours and patterns which are also part of basic maths skills.

DS also enjoys snakes and ladders on a numbered board - it has counting up to 100 and also simple addition when you move your piece.

cooking, counting up and down the stairs, firstly in one's then as he progresses in2's 10's 5's.
number domino's, number snap.

A button box for sorting by pattern, colour shape. Maths is more than numbers.
Water play in the garden pouring into different size containers to understand language and concept of volume.
Counting everywhere you go.
Sharing - cutting up toy pizza or cakes. Or real ones.
Weighing and measuring. Height chart, tape measure, baking, number scales.
Maths language in everyday activities- bigger, smaller, taller, faster, shorter, longer, etc
Patterns
Jigsaws and spatial awareness toys - fitting the right shapes in the tight holes, putting all the small cubes back in the big cube etc.

He’s never going to be good at maths without using practical applications of number and scale to enable him to get to grips with mathematical concepts. Young children need to understand the concrete before they can embed it in abstract form. TV isn’t the answer and he needs persuading to participate in active learning through play. At the moment it’s just parroting.

some play weighing scales may also be a good idea. the ones i linked can hold liquids, shapes, blocks etc. he may be too young to fully understand, but you can tell him that when the side that is closest to the floor is the heaviest, side in the air is the lightest etc.

sorry for continuously commenting OP but has he watched alphablocks? its the sister show to numberblocks and may get him interested in letters as well as numbers x

Try mathletics and purple mash. We use them in school. Not sure how sign up works as I know you need a log in but not sure if you have to pay.

Also the bbc website has fun videos with different mascots to learn times tables

Orchard Toys has - or at least used to have - good games for the application of number. Snakes and ladders, the Bus Stop game, Shopping etc

Oh, and did you know that EVERY telegraph pole has a unique number? Time was when I knew the number of every one in the village, thanks to number-loving DS...

Ah thanks everyone. Great idea about those weighing scales, sleep. Yes he loves Alphablocks! He's learnt to read through watching them and playing with fridge magnets and an orchard toys spelling game. His first love has always been numbers though, for some reason.

Cherry tbh I'm just following his lead right now, he's only two and this isn't about making him 'good at maths' but about feeding his love of numbers in the same way I feed his love of splashing in puddles. He loves shapes, colours, and patterns too and we play around with them all the time - his shape knowledge seems especially good, which is probably why he learned numbers and the alphabet so easily too. He uses comparative language (taller, smaller, biggest etc) and ordinal number language (he counted first through to eighth with some hoops he was playing with the other day), and skip counts a little bit as well as adding and subtracting and matching dominos, and loves dice and coins. So it's probably fair to say he'll be / is quite good at some maths, since none of this is expected at his age. But he's not very practical (possibly dyspraxic) and won't participate with jigsaws at all, and practical tasks like baking he hates, you can't make him do it. Our weighing scales aren't the most legible though, maybe if I got some with massive numbers he'd take more interest The fractions/pizza thing is a good idea, I wonder if there are good fraction toys about.

Thanks youknow, I'd not heard of any of them

Thanks cantkeep, love orchard toys! I've not dared to him any of those yet as I'm not sure he's ready (the whole following rules, taking turns thing...) Looking forward to them though!

Cherry sorry, that sounded really defensive of me. What you're saying is bang on, of course, I'm just basically looking for things to show him when I need downtime, like Paw Patrol but for a boy who loves numbers more than anything else

Numberblocks have a magazine with actual numberblocks you can build, my little boy loves these and is always playing with them.

My maths loving son had a metal clicking counter. I think they were invented for keeping count of people going through a gate. Every time you click it goes on one number. He counted everything. Doing a phd in maths now!

It is called a metal hand tally counter.

Oh and thanks Teddyreddy I'll have a look at those. What age is your DS?

Omg Panticles that's absolutely inspired! Thanks!

Paperhats you nabbed the actual numberblocks from the magazine, I'm so jealous The only Numberblocks mag I've seen is the most recent one, all stickers so not really worth the money. But I looked up the actual blocks and they're expensive now, from what I've seen in eBay. Missed my chance!