Help me out with some 4 year old's maths please?

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Ds1 is not going to be home educated, he starts school in September. However, he is itching to know about numbers, and how they work, and what they look like etc.

He recognises numbers up to 10, so I have made little bits of paper with numbers written on, and am using mini weetabix as counters. I have a plus sign and an equals sign, and a minus sign.

I set the 'sum' up, and get him to count the weetabix over the numbers - and for minusing, I get him to count the weetabix on the first number onto the the second number.

Now, he LOVES this, I certainly wouldn't bother if he was even just neutral, but he is picking it up faster than I can figure out how to tech him, I don't know how to tech him about 2 figure numbers, I susp[ect I am doing the subtracting wrong and will confuse me - does anyone have some experience to add? He seems to have a flair for maths that I don't want to screw up, I am about as mathmatically minded as the average hamster.

I would get him to count things in the house and treat it as a game, for example go and count all the tooth brushes in the bathroom, find out how many pictures there are in the living room, how many books on the book shelf. As his counting gets better, how many spoons do we have in the cutlery draw, how many socks in the socks draw etc, then get him writing the answers down on paper so that he practices writing numbers.

Allgood advice here, it seems like your DS does have an aptitude and yes by all means encourage and nututre it but in the context ofreality. maths is a pratical subject very often (later on at school ) taught in the abstract i.e. symbolsetc. If he can copewith the abstract then let it come from him, it will show through a n interest in signs and symbols seen around the outside world ie road signs, no smoking signs etc. Once he is comfortablewitht the idea of abstract symbolic representation then he might be readt to move forward to the abstract symbolic nature of mathematical notation. you can continue to work with more than, less than, lots of and sharing without the need for notation, yo can doit with mini weetabix, smarties( my favourite maths teaching medium ) and as he continues to count beyond 10 and twenty you can help him with the names ofthe numbers. you can point out numbers you see on doors and signs and help him read those but only in the same way as any other sign. it's wonderful that he has an interest and aptitude with maths. the foundation stage at my ds's school helped with his interest as it was all practical and none written so he should get on fine at school. I'm sure he'll be good at maths as he has an interest so keep his interst fresh but don't try to go too far in the danger of putting him off or confusing him (i'm sure you're not, just a future warning )
LOL at Dottydot my DS is just the same

I'm not sure exactly what we have done with ds1 (also starts school in Sep) re numbers but he has really picked them up.

I think he would recognise a + symbol, not sure about - and =, but we have never done written maths, we just talk about numbers alot, do number puzzles in the car (his choice, I used to make them of the 2 apples and 3 more apples type, and a few months ago he asked me why I couldn't just give him numbers, not silly apples ).
I would start with counting past 10, count as you climb the stairs (most have more than 10), as you weigh out ingredients etc etc etc (i.e. count everything). Once he has got the concept of more than 10 (he might have this already) you can introduce the written form.
ds had some junior top trumps for xmas and these were great for ordering (which is more, which is less). The junior ones are all 1-10. He then has had dinosaur, space and wonders of the world, all of which have much higher numbers.

I did try inrtoducing units, ten, hundreds formally, because when learning about years (on the top trump cards) and that you say them 10-66 rather than 1,066 he lost his concept of thousands. A friend who is a middle school maths teach did a few games with him round units, not sure if it worked or it it was just a bit of time, but he seems ok with it again now.

I am just going with doing numbery things, and leaving formal teaching to the school when he starts.

just took me ages to type this as I had to play Rummibkub inbetween, so lots of new postings. But my ds1 is JUST like that with a minute - grrr.

Cuisenaire Rods are great for them to play with at this age and then use them properly when older www.cuisenaire.co.uk. I remember them fondly from my childhood.

Some things here
www.dltk-teach.com/numbers/index.html
www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/math-readiness/comparisons.htm