Family Literacy Week is coming up next week! In honour of this year’s theme, Make it count! Play * Sort * Measure, we’re re-posting this helpful blog from 2016 (with updated links).

Parents’ attitudes to math and the messages students pick up from their parents about math influence children’s math learning and achievement.

“It is critical that when parents interact with children about math they communicate positive messages, saying that math is exciting and it is an open subject that anyone can learn with hard work, that it is not about being ‘smart’ or not and that math is all around us in the world.” – Stanford University

For parents of young children, reading storybooks with a math component can create a positive environment for learning math concepts. There are counting and shape books, but there are also books where math is embedded in the story. Finding the Math in Storybooks for Young Children briefly outlines why it’s important to read storybooks with math ideas and offers a few ‘how-to’ suggestions.

Watch the video below for a read aloud of a book about fractions, Give Me Half! by Stuart J. Murphy.

Looking for math storybooks?

You’ll find some suggestions in:

• 40 Children’s Books That Foster a Love of Math
• The Best Children’s Books for Early Math Learning
• The Biggest List of the Best Math Picture Books EVER
• 14 Math Books for Preschoolers
• How many ways can you make five? – email library@decoda.ca to borrow from the Decoda Library.
• Using Maths Storybooks To Engage Children
• Website: MATHSTHROUGHSTORIES.ORG