10 Preschool Math Activities that Captivate Your Child’s Attention

Honestly, my math skills throughout elementary to high school were slim to none – but even worse than my lack of skills was my complete dread of it. I would do absolutely anything to avoid math.

I’d even tag along with my mom to one the most boring places of all (the bank) if it meant I didn’t need to do long division.

Sometimes I wonder, though, if I had been coyly tricked into liking math at a super young age, would it have improved my long term abilities?

Research shows that early exposure (like attention-grabbing activities for children) may just improve a child’s overall lifetime abilities in math.

Did panic just set in? Not to worry.

I get it, the idea of teaching a preschooler how to say “please” is a huge enough task; you may rightfully implore, “So how the heck am I going to teach my jam covered child math?”

Fortunately, there are all sorts of fun preschool math activities at home that will help you teach math in a way that will captivate your kiddo’s attention:

1. Count the Yummy Treats

Remember your days of being a little tyke? Often, sugary treats or anything else that you “shouldn’t have” like donuts, cookies, or ice cream felt like gold.

You knew that if you were getting a s’more, that Lady Luck had visited your house.

I’m not saying you should create a young sugar monster, but you can certainly use delicious foods that your child loves to entice and engage. How many raisins are there? Count the gummy bears!

2. Multitask Math Concepts With Play-Do

Want a simple math task that will keep your child’s interest after the fact?

Solution: Get out the Play-Do, and begin rolling up different sized shapes or anything you can create (snowmen, simple animals, or round balls).

Show your preschooler two of your creations and ask, “which one is bigger?” You can add in all sorts of math terms: smaller, shorter, longer, “how many,” “which pile has more,” as well as shape identification.

This is a fantastic way to engage your child in the moment, and should keep him or her playing after, as well.

3. Classify with Shiny Objects

We all love shiny pretty things, but children especially do. Captivate your preschooler’s attention by having them sort bright, fun, and colorful stickers into groups.

Feel free to go wild with this – grab your child’s attention by using their interests, like car, dinosaur, flower or princess stickers.

The kids happily sort their stickers into groups of colors and size (precursors for larger math concepts to come), and as an added bonus, this activity will gift you a minute or two of downtime.

4. Use Nature to Make Patterns and Develop Logic Skills

Have your preschooler run around outside and collect some of his or her favorite things (unless that happens to be stray dogs). They can happily gather flowers, rocks, or pine cones.

After, create an easy pattern for your child to finish. For example, flower, rock, flower, rock – what comes next?

Bonus Tip: Have your little one create a pattern for you to complete. A common pattern might look something like: soggy cheerio, rock, broken crayon, and pile of goo – what comes next?

5. Use Chalk to Teach Shapes

By mid afternoon, the last thing you may want to do is teach anything to anyone. But grab yourself a coffee and head out to the front yard with some chalk.

All you need to do is draw shapes (circle, square, rectangle) on the side walk and when you call out the shape, your child will run, hop, or wobble to that shape.

Presto, you enjoy some mood boosting caffeine while your preschooler learns shapes.

6. Teach Inside Outside By Drawing a Face

This one is a no brainer for any tired mom or dad.

Simply draw a circle and have your children fill it in with what belongs on someone’s face: eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, hair, ears, and get crazy by adding in a hat or earrings.

As you go, ask your child, “Are the eyes inside,” “Are these ears outside,” and before you know it, you have an engaging craft and math game for your preschooler.

7. Identify Numbers With Fingers

Create an easy math escape plan for yourself throughout the day, by giving your child little challenges from morning to night by asking him or her questions.

An example of this, “How many sausages are on your plate?” Your little one will show you using his or her fingers. “How many strands of sanity does mom have left?” Easy, zero.

8. How Big With Marshmallows

Use this fluffy treat to your advantage in this game. Have your kids measure how big their hand, feet, or height is with marshmallows.

All you sweet frazzled parent need to do is have your child outline their hand or foot on a piece of paper, and then line up the number of marshmallows along the drawing.

Like magic, you have a conversion of, “Mommy my hand is ten marshmallows.”

9. Make Frozen Lemonade to Measure

Gather up some ice, water, concentrate, and a little Sangria (oops, only for rated R lemonade), and help your preschooler measure out the ingredients to make a delicious frozen lemonade treat.

Five cups of water, one can of concentrate, and 20 ice cubes – blend and enjoy.

Just be sure to give little Johnny the PG rated version of this lemonade.

10. Dinner More or Less

As you sit down to the evening’s meal, you may want to teach a math lesson about as much as you want to jump into an ice cold pool, but there is one simple way to add some arithmetic into your mashed potatoes.

Simply ask, “Do you want more green beans or less?,” “Do you want more ice-cream tonight?,” “Then finish your broccoli first!”.