Nursery World - Mathematical development: Make it count

Enjoying and exploring maths should not be a matter of worksheets, but finding it first-hand in everyday situations. Julian Grenier explains where carers can start looking

How many times have you heard colleagues saying that maths was their worst subject at school? Or that they can't do maths? Many practitioners enjoy children's early attempts to write with their own marks and symbols, but when it comes to introducing numbers and ways of recording them, they may feel less secure.

The Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage states that 'mathematical understanding should be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play, so that children enjoy using and experimenting with numbers, including numbers larger than 10'. So, there is no support in the document for the steady creep of maths worksheets into early years settings.

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