Count the number of buttons on your child's shirt as you button them, the number of oranges they help you put in the grocery bag at the supermarket, the number of forks needed to set the table, or the number of stairs you go up to the front door. How many steps does it take to cross the room? How far through the house can you get in 15 steps? Counting with your child to start and then leaving them to count independently.

Gather some coins and have your child count them. After your child has counted them, rearrange them in a circle, in a row, or spread them out, and ask them again to count the objects. Don't be surprised if they have to count them again. But if they automatically answer without counting, you'll know that they have mastered number invariance.

Simple games like Candy Land and Snakes and Ladders are great for helping kids recognise numbers on a dice and count moves. Other, more complex games involve two dice instead or one or doubling the number that comes up for each move. Play the card game War using a deck of cards; make it easy at the start by including only cards up to five, and then gradually make it more complex by having each player put out two cards. The highest sum of the two cards wins!

The key is to point out addition as it naturally occurs in everyday situations, so let your children hear you add(or subtract) while thinking aloud

e.g. “I have one apple for James and one for Lucy; I'll need two more for Emily and Ben, so that's four apples altogether.”).

Play shops at home (and help them add amounts), or schools (where they have to add up how many children, for example, are having dinners). "Can I buy 3 of these (Put up three things) and 2 of these (Put up something else) how much am I buying?

Try to use objects at this stage so your child can see and count what is there. Where possible, model counting on from the largest number e.g. 3 and 2 would be

3 ...4, 5

When playing with toys you can say things like. "I see you have two dolls there and a teddy. How many toys do you have all together?"

Or when setting a picnic for toys "We only have one plate... we need 3 plates so the toys have one each. How many more plates do we need?"

Play a simple game of finding basic shapes around the home, such as rectangles in light switches, squares in windowpanes, circles in clocks, and so forth. Ask your child to explain how they differentiate each shape by their defining features (for instance, a triangle has three connected sides) and non-defining features (such as the position or size of the triangle).

It might be getting out knives and forks or finding different coloured things to create a pattern with. Get creative in seeing and creating patterns. You can use anything around the house. If you are feeling musical try a pattern with your body e.g. tap your knees, tap your knees, clap, tap your knees, tap your knees, clap...

When reading a storybook, use spatial language to talk about the placement of pictures. Ask related questions such as "Where is the moon? Is it above the tree? Is it under the tree?" Or reference sizes by asking, "Is the hippopotamus bigger than the monkey? Which animal is bigger? Which animal is smaller?"

You can ask your child to get you things or help you put things away.

e.g. "Can you put the plate on the table for me?"

"Is the cat still under the table?"

"Can you get me the remote from in the basket?"

Practice more spatial language by helping your child make a map of their bedroom or the backyard. As they place and space out furniture, windows, and closets, or gardens, trees, and bushes, ask them questions about where they're located and how close together they are.

Place your foot next to your child's foot and ask them which is longer or bigger. If you have a ruler or tape measure on hand to compare the sizes and help them differentiate between long and short, large and small. Otherwise you can use non standard objects... how many pennies long is your foot? How many lego blocks long?

The next time you visit the grocery store, pull two different items from the shelves and ask your child which one is heavier: "Is it the can of soup or the box of crackers?" Children will learn how to understand the concepts of heaviness and lightness. Or during this time while we are in lockdown do the same with objects around the house.

Fill measuring cups with water or flour and measuring spoons with extract to introduce your kids to the concept of whole numbers and fractions. Ask questions such as "Can you fill a half cup? Can you fill one teaspoon?"

Time is a concept of measurement. Each day you can say to your child "Today is__________"

"Tomorrow will be __________"

"Yesterday was _____________"

As they become more confident you can ask

"Do you remember what yesterday was?"

"What will tomorrow be?"

We are not thinking about the clock and reading time just yet, but thinking about what time of day it is.

Use terms like ...

Morning

Afternoon

Evening

Night

in context during the day so your child can become aware of these terms and how they fit into daily life.

You might like to use listing for things you are going to do during the day. This is a great chance to introduce words like

First

Next

Then

Finally

and also revisit the times of the day eg. "In the morning we will eat breakfast first and then brush our teeth."

A maths learning platform that has activities and quests students can complete.

Scratch Jr is a great app for students to learn computational thinking skills (coding).

A wonderful interactive game by TopMarks. The game focus on teaching counting, matching and ordering numbers up to 10. This game is tablet friendly.

Game by Mrs Priestley, the game focus on teaching numbers and counting.

A simple yet effective game to teach number bonds to 10. The game shows a grid of 10 spaces which are filled with counters (or stars, apples or ladybirds) and children are asked either to count the objects available or count how many spaces are still empty? This game is tablet friendly.

A site with a range of free math games from counting to addition and subtraction. Also videos linked to the BBC's show Cbeebies.