Pre-math skills are more than being able to count to 10. These skills are the very basic understandings of the relationships among objects. In the preschool years, children learn to think in patterns, find ways to classify and group things, learn about basic geometric shapes, understand the ideas of "more than" and "less than," and measure things in all kinds of ways.
Five fundamental pre-math skills are:
• one-to-one correspondence, including using number words in the proper order (counting) and understanding the idea of one object-one number (one-to-one correspondence).
• sequencing, including the ability to create and identify patterns and to arrange objects in order by size, location, or position (e.g., smallest to largest).
• spatial relations, including the understanding of where objects are in relation to something else (e.g., above/below, before/after, in front of/in back of) and basic shapes and geometry.
• classifying and matching, including putting things into sets, finding things that are the same or alike, organizing objects by a specific trait (such as size, color, or shape), identifying similarities and differences among objects, and determining the extent or degree of something (measuring).
• addition and subtraction, including an understanding of the concepts of “more than,” “less than,” and “the same as.” (With preschoolers we don’t worry that they know that 2 + 2 = 4, rather that things can be more than, less than, or the same as).
Preschoolers learn these skills best through everyday exploration and opportunities provided by teachers, not through boring drills and worksheets.
