"Maths" resources for 5 year old?

[CalmAChameleon]

DC is 5 and a half. Does anyone have any good resources for helping to support maths and numeracy, understanding of shapes, patterns, symmetry etc etc at home? Huge bonus points for anything that is genuinely fun and doesn't feel like formal learning! We already do the usual baking together etc and have a few games (Snakes & Ladders, Four in a Row, kids Monopoly) which he enjoys. Any recommendations for others that are really good? We've found Orchard Toys games quite mixed quality, but open to any tried and tested recommendations from them too. 

He's had a few small Lego kits for birthday/Christmas and enjoys playing with them, but it rapidly tends to become "you do it mummy" when it comes to the actual building.

[Saracen]

Old fashioned balance scales
Geomag - there are cheaper ones but we love this because its super-strong magnets make better structures possible
Real money. Both of mine spent endless time calculating what they could buy with their pocket money. To this day, my teen refers to specific sums she knows because of the sweets she regularly bought at the corner shop when she was little.
Rulers and tape measures to support craft projects, DIY, and sewing
Calculator. Obviously phones and computers can do it all, but an actual calculator is fun to play with. Let him quiz you on arithmetic and he can know the answer because he has the calculator! Kids get fed up with being tested and with everyone else knowing things they don't know, so let him be the one in charge who has the answers!

[Saracen]

Play with mirrors. Make a periscope. If you hold a mirror at an angle up against something such as a drawing, the mirror plus drawing makes a symmetrical image. Likewise, splodge paint on one side of a piece of paper before folding it, then when you unfold it you have a symmetrical painting. Look at Escher drawings. Make a Moebius strip and imagine an ant crawling along it.
Billiards, pool, and table tennis all give an understanding of angles and physics. Light behaves the same way. Can you find somewhere in the room to "hide" so he cannot see you in the mirror? Where in the room does he have to stand in order to see your reflection? Can he position a mirror so he can see up the road when he's lying in bed? He may be amused to learn that people sometimes embarrass themselves by taking off their clothes at a place in the room where they think people outside can't see them, but the mirror displays them to passersby!

[DontPutTheKidsThroughIt]

Numberblocks tv show then loads of follow up activities based on it. You could make number blocks number character with lego blocks. I know you probably don’t want a tv show as a recommendation but it’s really quite brilliant in the way they introduce concepts. Things like the 12 character is a super rectangle because it can rearrange itself as 1x12, 12x1, 2x6, 6x2, 3x4 and 4x3. Or all the square numbers are in a club together 1,4,9,16 and 25 etc.

[marmaladeandpeanutbutter]

Raisins!

[ChangeAgain2]

Apps
1 minute maths
Bbc bitesize
Mathseed and reading eggs (Great games and printable worksheets its £6.99 @ month but my DC likes it and I have seem great progression)

Games
Junior monopoly
Domino's

[CalmAChameleon]

Thanks! Some great ideas here.

[Merrow]

Shut the box and Uno are hits with my almost 5 year old, I think shut the box in particular is very good for maths.

[GetUpStandUp4]

I've seen people on Instagram use magna tiles yo help maths. apart from learning shapes and nets with it, you can write on them with a white board pen and make them into dominoes or write numbers on them and stick them together to make addition or subtraction questions

[Bubbleswithsqueak]

Math for Love has games you can buy and free downloadable games to play with simple resources. They're excellent!

[GetUpStandUp4]

this website has great ideas

https://www.andnextcomesl.com/p/play-ideas-for-kids.html?m=1

[declutteringmymind]

We used numicon - great for conceptual learning.

[Cathyuk]

Top Marks is a great website that we use in my school. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=1

[Cathyuk]

We also follow a Maths Scheme that uses Number Blocks, it is great.

[Octavia64]

Pattern blocks are really good.

www.learningresources.co.uk/pattern-blocks

You can get giant floor ones as well. I like playing with them.


Also you can get large beads to thread in patterns.

[Hazil]

Do not introduce a calculator, it makes persuading them to learn mental maths so much harder!

Numicon and Numberblocks are good as is bbc bitesize

However nothing beats playing a game with 10-12 cuddly toys and dividing biscuits up between the toys. Children have a very strong sense of what is fair and instantly grasp quite complicated maths questions when sugary food is involved. Eg you have four biscuits but 12 toys how much do they each get if you are fair?

[coodawoodashooda]

Ict games

[Familiaritybreedscontemptso]

Turing tumble is brilliant. I’d also get a set of numicon. Bead strings, rulers, a rekenrek.

[stardust40]

Numicon is great for children! It's great for counting, making shapes, patterns and it's also weighted correctly so great for putting in weighing scales (if you put the 3 in one side and the 2 and 1 in the other it balances!)

[Saracen]

@Hazil "Do not introduce a calculator, it makes persuading them to learn mental maths so much harder!"

I disagree. Like all learning, maths is playful. To a young child, a calculator is a toy for playing with numbers. It lets children explore larger numbers and more complicated expressions than they might do if they relied entirely on their own current mental skills. It's fun.

When children have a need for computational skills, they'll learn them, either spontaneously through exposure, or through a conscious effort. Often that doesn't happen as early as schools would demand of them, but for children not at school, there's no hurry.

Would you say, "Don't give your child audiobooks" out of fear that it will stop them from learning to read, or "Don't cook for your child" because it will stop them learning to cook?