2 - 4 Years Math

It takes several years for kids to truly master subtraction. Your little learner will likely be introduced to the idea in Kindergarten and will work continue to work on “taking away”, as well as other basic math skills, through about the 4th grade. You can help support the concept at home, with simple, playful activities designed to teach the concept and fluidity of numbers, which is proven to support long term math success, versus simply memorizing math facts. Below are a few of our favorite ways to practice subtraction:

Start With… Manipulatives!

Manipulatives are the name of the game for introducing the concept of subtraction. You can find manipulatives specifically designed for math activities, including everything from ten frames and dots to sets of dinosaurs. You can also make your own manipulatives, using anything from paperclips to marshmallows, toy cars, or wooden blocks.

No matter the tool or the game, you’ll want to talk your kiddo through the process. Count your original quantity out loud, then remove some of the objects, set them aside, and count your original set again. Then count the quantity you removed. Talk your mini mathematician through the process, using math vocabulary like plus, minus, and equals. Verbally share as you go, saying things like: “We have one, two, three, four, blocks. Let’s take away one, two blocks. Now we have one, two blocks. Four blocks minus two blocks equals two blocks.”

Then Try… Dice, Cards, or Dominoes

Once your little one is comfortable with the visual concept of taking a quantity away from another quantity, they’re ready to move onto mental math. Encourage them to think of the numbers they’re seeing as objects, see the total, then remove the quantity they’re subtracting.

You can make this mental math practice way more fun with dice, cards, or dominoes! Roll two dice, determine which number is bigger, then subtract the smaller number from the bigger one. Draw two cards and do the same. Or pull a domino from the box and subtract the smaller side from the larger.

And Finally… Riddles

Mental math wizards will get a kick out of number riddles. Write one number, 1-10, on each of 10 index cards, pick three, and lay them out face up. Then give your child a series of clues to help eliminate some of the numbers on the cards and help them determine which of those three numbers you have chosen.

For example, you might have cards with the numbers 5, 9, and 2. You’ll say, “The number I am thinking of is NOT 6 minus 4.” And “The number I am thinking of is NOT 10 minus 1.” Your kiddo will use these clues to determine that you are thinking of number five.

Like all learning, the best way to make it stick is to make it fun! Try these subtraction tricks with your kids and help lay the foundation for future math success.

Your three-year-old will always be your baby, but they’re learning and growing by leaps and bounds, and there’s so much you can do to help nurture their natural development! While children develop at their rate and mastering things a bit earlier or later than others is common, below is a list of social-emotional, language, cognitive, and physical milestones many kids achieve by the time they turn four (and, hence, the things they’re working on when they’re three).

Social-Emotional Skills

Your little love bug is starting to become less self-centered and more aware of the people around them, showing affection, concern, empathy, and a range of other emotions. As their sense of self and self-confidence grows, they may be becoming more independent. By the time they turn four, they may also be able to:

• Mimic you, other family members, and friends
• Take turns when playing games or using toys
• Make eye contact when communicating
• Play on their own for 10+ minutes
• Begin to separate more easily from parents or caregivers
• Recognize and name different feelings, such as happiness, silliness, sadness, and fear

Language Skills

Being able to communicate verbally with your child is an exciting milestone! With a vocabulary hovering between 250-500 words and blossoming grammatical skills, you (and those around you) should be able to understand about 75% of what your three-year-old is telling you. By the time they turn four, your child may also be able to:

• Follow instructions with two or three steps, such as “Please get your shoes and meet me at the front door.”
• Name several colors and basic shapes, including circles, squares, and rectangles.
• Recognize several letters
• Use pronouns (such as it, me, my, you, your, she, he, and we), the past tense, and plural words
• Speak in full sentences of 4-6 words and carry on a conversation using 2-3 sentences at a time
• Tell stories (they may be silly!)

Cognitive Skills

It’s tough to say who feels prouder when a child masters a new skill – the child or the parent! Three-year-old minds are working overtime, observing, practicing, and conquering all kinds of amazing feats. By the time they turn four, many three-year-olds can:

• Engage in imaginative pretend play
• Complete a 3-to-4 piece puzzle
• Build a tower of 6 blocks or more
• Draw a line and circle and begin to draw people (they will probably look more like tadpoles)
• Count to three and begin to recognize quantities, such as one cookie, two cookies, or three cookies
• Sort and match items that are the same or different and compare items by size or color

Physical Skills

If only we could bottle the energy of a three-year-old – it seems they’re always ready to hit the park or playground, race to the corner, or jump off a step. By the time they turn four, many three-year-olds are also able to:

• Pedal a tricycle
• Kick, throw, and catch a ball
• Hop on one foot
• Balance on one foot for 5+ seconds
• Hold a pencil using a tripod (3 fingers) or quadrupod (4 fingers) grip

As we said above, children develop at their own pace, mastering some skills quickly and requiring more practice with others. The more practice they get – and the more support they feel from you – the more confident they will feel as they learn and grow. If you’d like to track your child’s milestones by age, consider downloading the CDC’s mobile milestone app!

Four-year-olds are so much fun! Becoming more independent by the minute, fours are generally super social and extra energetic. They’ll probably begin to push the boundaries a bit this year, though, and will likely give up on napping (sorry, Mom). They’ll also benefit from time away from parents and caregivers as they prepare to enter Kindergarten next year. Below is a list of other social-emotional, language, cognitive, and physical skills you may see emerge this year (but remember, kids progress at their speeds and may pick up these skills earlier or later!):

Social-Emotional Skills

Your baby is officially a preschooler now, learning to identify and express their emotions appropriately, with words rather than emotions. Other exciting social, emotional skills your four-year-old will likely learn this year include:

• Approaching new experiences with excitement
• Preferring playing with friends than alone (and can take turns and cooperate most of the time)
• Sharing information about things they’re interested in
• Role-playing mom or dad during pretend playtime
• Clearly expressing a thought or idea

Language Skills

Look out! With an average vocabulary of up to 1,600 words, your four-year-old has plenty to say! Fours are becoming much more communicative, using longer, clearer sentences, singing songs, playing word games, even reciting short poems! Here are some other language skills your four-year-old may acquire this year:

• Speaking fluently and enough to be understood by strangers
• Telling a story about something that happened to them
• Singing a simple song from memory… Oh, the wheels on the bus go…
• Answering questions beginning with who, what, where, when, why, how many…
• Playing simply rhyming games (cluck says the duck!)

Cognitive Skills

Fours are building the foundation for future learning, practicing shapes, letters, numbers, counting, and attempting to write and draw. By the time most kids start Kindergarten (usually around age five), they’ll:

• Know their full name and maybe their phone number
• Recognize letters, numbers, and signs
• Count 10 or more objects
• Draw a person with 4-6 body parts (head with mouth and eyes, body with arms and legs)
• Understand comparative terms like big/small, short/tall, same/different, empty/full, etc.

Physical Skills

It may feel like your four-year-old is in constant motion, running, jumping, climbing, hopping, and hiding all day long. In addition to honing their gross motor skills, this year, they’ll also be refining key fine motor movements that allow them to dress and feed themselves (hooray). Other physical skills your little one will be working on this year include:

• Buttoning and unbuttoning their clothing
• Using childsafe scissors
• Running faster and climbing higher than they did at three
• Balancing on one foot for 3 seconds
• Walking a “tightrope”
• Climbing stairs with no support

Remember that kids develop at different speeds, so don’t worry if it’s taking your little one a little longer to master any of the skills above. You can support their development by practicing these things at home, in a fun way – and you can track your child’s milestones by age with the CDC’s mobile milestone app!

Play your way to school-ready toddler skills with these fun, quick activities! This set's hands-on activities help kids learn and retain lessons in counting, color recognition, and early letter skills through fun, active play. Plus, the built-in carrying case lets you take the learning on the go! Learn more about Skill Builders! Toddler Skills. 

I am currently in the fun position of being a Preschool teacher and being Mom to a preschooler. It is honestly such a magical stage of childhood, and I love how much playful learning happens daily. I am always on the lookout for engaging new materials with my daughter and preschool class, so I was excited to test out Learning Resources® Preschool Letters and Numbers Skill Builders! Sets. In the second blog of this mini-series, we will turn our attention to the Numbers Set.

As I mentioned in the first blog, learning for preschoolers should be as hands-on and fun as possible. It is important to capture their engagement and keep those little hands busy. The Skill Builders! Preschool Numbers Set includes durable plastic numbers and shapes, foam color and number dice, colored ocean counters, number and picture cards, and a selection of paper activity sheets. As with all Learning Resources products, there is also a brilliant activity guide full of enriching activity ideas for your preschooler.

I let my four-year-old pick out the materials she liked the look off, and then we set up a little number tracing and matching activity. She chose one number card at a time and then traced the number with her finger after saying it aloud. She had to find the correct plastic number and place it next to the number card. The final step was to flip over the number card to see the objects and count them. So many excellent numeracy and literacy skills were at work here!

Next, up my preschooler decided that she wanted to explore the shape pieces. We placed the shape cards on one side of the table and the plastic shapes on the other. She chose a plastic shape, and I asked her to name it if she could. She then tried to find the matching shape card, telling me what the picture was of on the shape card. We worked together to figure out the names of some of the more difficult shapes, and we also counted how many sides the shapes had. A really fun extension of this activity was when my daughter announced that she wanted us to go on a shape hunt around the house. We challenged ourselves to find two examples of each plastic shape in our home for each plastic shape. It was lots of fun!

We finished our number session with a game of 'ocean counter collections' (at least that's what my four-year-old called it?!?). We took turns to roll the foam color dice, and then we had to pick out an ocean counter of that color. We kept taking it in turns, building our ocean collection and counting as we went. If your child wanted to make the game more challenging, you could add the foam number dice for some number recognition and vocabulary.

There are plenty more ways you can play with this set. My preschooler particularly enjoyed the large plastic numbers and making games using foam dice and ocean counters. The vibrant colors are such a fun addition!

Writer's Bio

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind.

Can you use MathLink® cubes to make a holiday tree and present? How many cubes do you need to make each shape?

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