Quick links
- Number Skills: How to Help Your Preschooler Practice Four Key Number Skills at Home
- Repeating Patterning Skills: How to Help Your Preschooler Practice Four Key Patterning Skills at Home
- Math Books, Games & Websites for Families
- Math Tips for Families Featuring Card Games, Blocks, and Beads
- Patterning Tips for Parents and Teachers
By Faith Logan, Dr. Ashli-Ann Douglas, and Dr. Bethany Rittle-Johnson, Vanderbilt University
Finding fun, engaging, and unique ways to incorporate math into everyday activities can be a challenge. We have collected some of our favorite books, games, and websites that provide ideas for how families can support their preschool-aged children’s math learning!
MATH BOOKS
- David Purpura’s Educational Picture Books:
- These books aim to help children learn early math skills in a fun and engaging way! They were developed by a team of early math development researchers based on research f
- indings about children’s math development.
- Starbright Books
- Starbright Books offers many books that incorporate math, sometimes with specific instructions or tips on how to engage
your child while reading. Starbright Books also offers bilingual books, as well as books in languages other than English.
- Starbright Books offers many books that incorporate math, sometimes with specific instructions or tips on how to engage
- Bedtime Math Picture Books
- A series of four picture books designed “in the spirit of making math as beloved as the bedtime story.”
- Storytelling Math
- Storytelling Math provides story books and hands-on activities with the aim of supporting families and children in exploring eve
ryday math concepts.
- Storytelling Math provides story books and hands-on activities with the aim of supporting families and children in exploring eve
MATH APPS AND GAMES
- Bedtime Math
- The Bedtime Math app provides interactive math stories for children ages 3-9 to engage in with their parents.
- MiniMath
- The MiniMath app provides interactive math stories for children ages 4-5 to engage in with their parents.
MATH WEBSITES
- Learning Trajectories
- Learning Trajectories provides activities and games suitable for children from birth to third grade. Math skills are broken down into learning paths with related activities at every step. This is a great resource for identifying how to continue challenging your child to deepen their math skills as they grow. They also have a math app that children can use independently or with family.
- DREME Family Math
- DREME Family Math provides lots of math activities that families can incorporate into everyday routines, as well as ideas for math games that parents can play with their children. We have included some of our favorite activities at the bottom of this page, but there are many more on DREME’s website!
- PBS Kids for Parents
- PBS Kids for Parents allows parents to find personalized activities and games based on a specific age range and an early learning skill or topic (such as math, literacy, social skills, or emotions and self-awareness). Parents can also select specific PBS shows that their children enjoy to find activities that involve characters from those shows!
- PBS SoCal Family Math
- PBS SoCal Family Math provides ideas for math crafts and activities that families can complete with their children, as well as free printable worksheets, a free family math activity book, and virtual workshops where parents can learn about early math skills and fun ways to support their children’s early math development.
- Erikson Institute
- The Erikson Institute website provides recommendations for math books and activities that parents can explore with their children. Articles and activities are organized by math skill and by age group, so parents can easily find ideas that fit their child’s specific needs.