Top 5 Kindergarten Math Concepts to Begin Teaching Your Kids

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Homeschooled or not, when a child reaches about 5 years old, there are several key kindergarten math concepts they’ll begin to learn.

I for one am not too strict about keeping up with common core or the pre-mandated milestones. However, there are a few math skills we begin teaching our children around the kindergarten age.

Top 5 Kindergarten Math Concepts

At this age and grade, children are still very much in the season of exploration. They are figuring out how to learn and what that looks like for themselves. Entering into our 5th year of homeschooling, we’ve learned how to embrace each of our children’s unique learning styles and go where the needs lead.

It’s safe to say that most of our children are hands-on learners who enjoy using manipulatives in structured and free play. Needless to say, I’m that mom who has an entire shelf in our pantry dedicated to sensory bins (I love these pre-made options!), puzzles, math blocks, and more.

These come in handy, though, especially when teaching math. While every family, homeschooling parent, and child are different, there are 5 main concepts I believe every kindergartner should know.

1. Numbers

Being able to count in order to at least 20 is a great start to number recognition. This sets the stage for seeing a number and knowing what it is to eventually telling time and counting money.

We like to use everyday life as ways to teach numbers. There are times when we’re counting the tires on a vehicle or the number of signs we pass driving down the road.

These free hundreds chart worksheets are also a great tool to use to begin working on number sense with your kids. We used them in Kindergarten to keep track of our number of school days.

2. Geometric Shapes

Typically children start learning about traditional shapes around 3 years old, so by the time they reach 5 or 6, it’s safe to start introducing the 3-D shapes. Not to mention, these are shapes that can be seen all the time.

From the basketball and soda can to a pyramid-shaped block, geometric shapes are easier to teach than you may think!

3. Telling Time

I personally don’t think this is a skill that has to mastered at this age, per se, more than simply introduced. You can start with teaching the minute and hour hand and use certain times of the day to teach how to read a clock (breakfast, snack, lunch, etc.).

4. Patterns

At first I wasn’t so sure how important learning patterns were, until I realized the connection they helped make to learning routines. By sticking with roughly the same schedule each day, our children are able to pick up on the concept of patterns fairly easily.

5. Money

Welcome to the age of, “Can I buy that?” Beginning at age 5, I start giving my kids an allowance each month…not necessarily for doing chores (although they are expected to do chores each day – you can read about our system here).

We are teaching them the value of money, how to save, and smart spending. When we go to the store and want to purchase something, we help them count it out, pay for their item, and understand how much they get back.

How to Teach Kindergarten Concepts

First and foremost I recommend taking into consideration the unique development of your child. Some are ready for full blown lessons from workbooks or textbooks, while others need a more gentle approach.

I like to start out with posters such as these, or even printable ones that can be kept in their morning and me-time binders. They can have the visual met with the physical by incorporating fun interactive notebooks into your learning.

Some kids might be able to begin using printables and worksheets to learn number formation, counting, number words, and number identification. Manipulatives and hands-on materials with these resources can be easily incorporated.

Books and games for this age are also great to teach little ones about patterns, number sense, and more. You can find a lot of fun math games I recommend in this post.

And finally, while we don’t use these all of the time, apps can be fun and helpful in learning math as well. We have really enjoyed the Reading Eggs app, which has a math program (called Mathseeds) that teaches core math and problem solving skills in an engaging, interactive way.

What math concepts are your kindergartner learning? Let me know in the comments below!

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• Best Books and Games to Help Teach Kids About Money
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