In our family I'm the designated "math" person. It isn't because I'm necessarily all that great at math. Oh, I've taken my share of calculus, but I always struggled with math. So one of the things I decided once I had children was to make sure they had a good appreciation for numbers without resorting to boring flash cards. I still remember the endless flashcard sessions I had with my dad. I know he meant well, but they were really painful and probably had the opposite impact that he expected.

They key to understanding and appreciating math isn't math itself, it is numbers. Unlike math, numbers are fun, easy to learn, and can be integrated into just about everything you do with your children.

Step 1

Make It fun
Let's face it, when you were a kid and your parents were force feeding you something how well did you pay attention? If you are like most kids the answer is not very well. In order to help prevent getting yourself into a position like that with early math skills you need to introduce the concept of numbers early and often. Teaching young children is always about consistency and repetition. Don't overwhelm them with numbers games, just slowly introduce them.

For my son we started with counting things in the car:

• How many blue houses can you count
• How many kids are playing ball in the park

At home we introduced card games:

• War - making him decide who had won each hand by both reading the number and counting the icons
• Uno - again make him decide who had won each hand
• Skipbo - this was a game for kids 2+ years older than he was when he started, but he never had any problem

Dominos - the combinations of pips provide for a real math challenge

All these games were about numbers and all of them were fun. My son still loves to play all of them.

Step 2

Keep it fresh
No matter how many math games you come up with eventually the child is going to grow bored. That's to be expected. Look for other less obvious avenues to push numbers.

Cooking

We had our son helping us bake cookies or make dinner. Cooking is great because the measurements introduce them to fractions. It is easy to take a piece of dough and tell your child to cut it into fourths. When the child asks what that is just explain it and move on. Next time you tell the child to cut something into a fourth or an eight they will pick upon the relationship and very shortly they will be asking you about fractions.

Playing

When there is a sibling present it's always easy to introduce the "you stay on this half of the room" concept. Of course you can use quarters, eights or whatever other measurement fits. Most toys break down into parts as well so you can explain percentages.

• Checkers
• Marbles
• Anything with more than a few pieces

Step 3

Praise
What child doesn't to be praised when they have done something good. Make sure you tell your child how well they are doing at that particular skill. More general praise is thought to possibly cause harm later in life. See this for details.

That's it. There isn't much to it because if its done as part of your everyday activities it will just be something that your children always do. They will learn and grow confident in their math abilities without having to resort to flashcards and stressful parent teacher sessions.