Preschool Math at Home: Simple Activities to Build the Best Possible Foundation for Your Child (Math with Confidence) Paperback – Illustrated, April 15, 2016

Great math program for both my 4 and 2 year old!

I can’t say enough good things about this book! And I’ll admit that as an elementary teacher, mom, and someone home preschooling, I’m very picky about curriculum and can rarely find something I love that I didn’t custom create myself. My only complaint is that I didn’t find it sooner because it would have given me better direction, and saved me money and time. The writer is a math and education graduate from Harvard and a mom. She’s understands what moms and kids need. It’s open and use style, little or no prep needed. Minimal supplies needed - use what’s around the house. Number sense is so important and one of the harder aspects of preschool math and her plan doesn’t leave gaps in understand. Each principle builds upon one another. My daughters love it and request “math time with mommy”. I use it with my 3 and 4 year olds separately. I wish I would have had it when my oldest was 3 but I’m enjoying it now to fill in gaps in understanding. They are progressing so quickly, having fun, and doing better than they were before I had the book. I can’t wait to look at her other books.

I love this book and have recommended it to so many other moms! Each lesson is short and fun and builds on the last one so well. My 4 year old wasn’t very familiar with numbers, but he quickly learned to count well, to see quantities, to recognize the numeric symbols for 0-10, and to understand the concepts behind adding and taking away (plus more). Math is his favorite! And even though I don’t feel very confident in my math skills, this is the part of our day that I looked forward to as well! We’ve moved on to Kindergarten Math with Confidence (also by Kate Snow) because I want to keep all the fun learning going, even though he technically won’t start kindergarten until 2021. I’m looking forward to teaching my 2.5 year old daughter using this book when she’s a little older (though she even picked up a lot of skills going through it with her big brother).

For context, I got this book for my 3.5 year old son, who has recently show interest in counting (and asking "how many days until my birthday?" ten times a day). I think you could probably start this book with an interested(!) older 2 year old. Your child does not need to know any numbers or be able to count before starting this book, although they obviously need to be decently verbal so you can discuss the activities. This book is not a workbook, or set of worksheets, it is a logical progression of simple activities and games you can play with your child that build from beginning counting to simple addition and subtraction.What I like:-The activities take zero prep and really only require some "counters".-The activities are totally age appropriate! This is huge! They are simple and can be done in only a few minutes. They are fun - my son loves "math time". They do not require any writing, which is the downfall of many early learning books.-It is well thought out and has taken us through some concepts I may not have thought of myself, like the difference between counting and counting out items, and subitizing.What I don't like:-The price: the book is a thin paperback and I was expecting a weightier volume for the price. It's possible that Amazon has just spoiled me. If you think of it as "curriculum", the price is reasonable.-The author takes a very linear approach to building math skills and stresses mastery of each chapter before moving to the next. This is not necessary, in my opinion, and may eventually bore a child if he/she gets stuck on a particular skill. All the skills she presents are important and should eventually be mastered, but, for example, I don't think it's necessary that a child have all the number symbols memorized before being introduced to any concept of addition. Not a big deal - if you're doing it at home, you're in charge of when your child moves on!Bottom line: We've really enjoyed working through this book. I'd recommend it.

Im a homeschooling parent who also works full time. So I am always looking for quick and easy things I can do consistently to keep my almost five year old learning happily. He was 4.5 when we got the book.I adore this book, and as we wrap it up, I've already bought the K level. As a parent who has math anxiety, I not only found Kate's approach to be easy to teach, I actually learned a lot myself. Kate focuses on teaching math sense, no just bludgeoning a kid with math facts they have no foundation for.Things I loved:Didn't need to buy any supplies (we used stuff we had around our home)It took virtually no prep on my part. I reviewed the lessons in advance and would briefly reread the specific section the morning before we did it. I found it easy to implement quickly.Kate included notes about possible hiccups or ways kids would do things that I would have panicked about, but gave me peace of mind.I could easily assess if my kid was ready to move on.I could do it consistently because the activities took very little time per session. And I could combine sessions if something felt easy for him.Things I didn't like:Really not much. There were some placeholders for the appendix pages that didn't get replaced by page numbers, but outside of that, I have no changes I'd want to see in the book.I truly can't say enough how happy I've been with this book and I look forward to checking out the K level work!

Half way through it and my 4 year old is enjoying learning with it.

The book is well written and worth the pennies. This curriculum will work well for even parents who are weak in math. It gives you all the ideas and method in introducing concepts to a young child.