Here are some simple number activities for home time if your child is struggling to remember the sequence of digits or identify a quantity.

These additional activities are easy to undertake with your children in and around your family home without having to purchase any expensive learning items but if you would like to add some games to add variety have a look at our list of mathematical downloadable activities.

1. Have your child count as far as he/she is able to and then encourage your child to join you while you continue counting to the desired number you are wanting them to learn to.
2. Ask your child to start counting from a number other than one. This is great pre-development for later when they will need to add two groups of objects together and should start counting from the larger group.
3. To assist in helping your child understand ordinal language ask your child to tell you the number before or after a number. Other examples of questions that use mathematical language to help develop quantity language is: How old will you be next year? How old were you last year?

Initially when you do the above numeracy activities with your child, it would be best to use a number chart for visual support and as the child gets more confident take it away or hide – this in itself can be made into ‘try and reveal’ guessing game.

The following activities are focused on learning quantity and so it is important your child can count up to the sequence of the number of quantity you give them. Initially you will have to count out the items with them as often children find it difficult to correspond their counting with each item as they select it or stop counting at the final item.

1. Ask your child to select the right amount of plates, cups and cutlery to set the dinner table.
2. Play games such as Dominoes, card games or board games that involve a die with dot patterns. This will help your child to quickly recognise patterns without counting them.
3. Simple matching or memory games are also a great way for children to associate the numeral digit with the right corresponding quantity. A simple one is to roll 2 dice – one displaying numbers, the other dot patterns.

These three numeracy and quantity activities will help your child build a great foundation to number awareness whilst offering a relevant link to real life use of mathematics.