Map Skills

Children learn to draw maps using pictures at first. They then go on to use landmarks and location words. By grade school children use maps and globes to to locate and work out distances between places.

Early Number Sense

As early as 6 months, babies begin to understand the concept of numbers, noticing small groups of one, two or three things. As children develop number sense they learn to count by ones, skip count and count backwards, gaining the foundation for operations. Children who have good number sense find learning operations like addition and subtraction much easier.

Matching

Matching develops early logic and reasoning skills and is a component of early math and literacy. Children match like objects, shapes, patterns, pictures and stories, letters to sounds and pictures to words.

The Alphabet

Knowing the letters of the alphabet is one of the first steps toward learning to read and write. Introducing letters to young children helps them learn to recognize the different shapes and names - an early indicator for reading achievement.

Word Building

To read and write, children must understand how individual letter sounds blend together to make words. Experimenting with building words, such as changing mat to cat to rat, helps with reading and spelling.

Matching

Matching develops early logic and reasoning skills and is a component of early math and literacy. Children match like objects, shapes, patterns, pictures and stories, letters to sounds and pictures to words.

Subtraction

The inverse of addition is subtraction - to take away objects and tell how many are left. Once children grasp subtraction, sets of objects can be replaced by numerals in equations.

Addition

Once children know that numbers are symbols for objects (2 stands for two cars) they learn to count sets, or groups of objects, to find sums. Finally, sets of objects can be replaced by numerals and added together in equations.

Phonics Skills

Before they can read independently, children must learn the relationship of letters to their sounds and be able to distinguish individual sounds, or phonemes, within words. Phonics skills help children sounds out new words (If I can read "pot", then I can read "hot" and "spot").

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