Getting your child involved in maths related tasks at home - such as counting money or measuring out ingredients - is linked to better number skills, a new study has found.
While these findings may feel like a no-brainer, it just goes to show how important it is to involve our children in these activities that we ourselves may find menial.
In the study, researchers from KU Leuven in Belgium tested 128 kindergarten-aged children in symbolic and non-symbolic numerical tasks.
As well, they asked parents how often their children participated in numeracy activities at home, the Frontiers in Psychology-published study noted.
"We found that the more parents engaged in activities such as identifying numerals, sorting objects by size, colour, or shape, or learning simple sums, the higher the children performed on skills like counting," the study's lead author, Belde Mutaf Yıldız, told Science Daily.
"These activities - and talking about money when shopping or measuring ingredients while cooking - were linked with a more accurate estimation of the position of a digit on an empty number line.
"In addition, engaging in activities such as card and board games was associated with better pictorial calculation skills."
She also called on policymakers to provide educational tools for parents and to make them aware of the importance of maths activities in the home.
The researchers added that the findings are correlation and not necessarily causation, meaning that kids who excel with numeracy may seek out maths activities at home, rather than home numeracy being the source of these improved skills.
What do you think of this study's findings, mums?
