Today I want to share with you 5 basic “Pre-Math” concepts to teach your Beginners. You need no “curriculum” or scope and sequence or book to teach these things. Your child will most likely pick these things up naturally, just by being involved in home and family life. If he doesn’t, just point them out and talk about them.
1) Colors – Red, Blue, Yellow, (Purple, Orange, Green, Pink, Brown, Black, White)
2) Shapes – Circle, Square, Triangle (Rectangle, Oval, Heart, Star)
3) Space and Time Relationships – over/ under/ beside – next to, before/ after, top/ bottom/ middle, left/ right, first/ last,
4) Comparison – bigger/ smaller, shorter/ longer – taller, darker/ lighter, fatter/ thinner, heavier/ lighter, big/ bigger/ biggest, more/ less.
5) Time – morning/ afternoon/ evening – night, mealtimes, bedtime, today, tomorrow, yesterday, seasons of the year.
These things can all be learned before he even gets a sense of amounts and learns numbers. Last week, I presented 8 Steps for teaching the first year of Beginners Math (where to start after these things are learned – working with amounts/ numbers) – without a book/ curriculum.
