If you have a young child, you need a set of blocks. It is really that simple.

Why are blocks a must? First, they are concrete.  Kindergartners are just beginning to learn in the abstract ways that worksheets require.  Plus, their developing writing skills (fine motor development) may not allow them to think through writing as quickly as their minds work.  Blocks do.

Not only do blocks allow for concrete learning, they also tap into your child’s need for repetition while learning.  Young children will stack and knock down blocks over and over again because of the sensory rewards—the sight of the blocks falling is breath-taking and the sound is awesome.  

Because many of us associate math with worksheets, we sometimes forget there are other ways we can learn math.  Maria Montessori, a pioneer in early childhood education, emphasized the importance of concrete forms in math education between the ages of three and five.  Math manipulatives facilitate the abstract thought needed later to compute numbers. She recommended that young children constantly move objects, like blocks and beads, and use their senses while learning because it leads to a later desire to write out a mathematical operation.  

Blocks are often available, but they are not always used for intentional math & play sessions.  Simply having blocks available for your child to use does not take full advantage of the potential that blocks have to construct a math mind. To unlock the mathematical benefits of block play, your child needs social interaction with you.  

If you don’t have wooden blocks, you can make your own blocks out of lightweight cardboard boxes (tissue boxes, cereal boxes, oatmeal canisters).  For added weight, pack them with newspaper and tape them shut.  Whether you have wooden blocks or not, making some cardboard boxes together and talking about their size and shape and what you would like to build with them is a great way to introduce your intentional math & play sessions.

Here are some age-appropriate purposeful block play ideas:

• Lay out block pattern with three or four blocks (triangle, circle, triangle, square) and ask your child to match or continue the pattern.  Recognizing and predicting patterns is an important logic and math skill.
• Block Puzzle - When your child is not watching, take a large piece of paper and lay the blocks flat on the paper to form a picture e.g. house or car. Trace each of the blocks then take them away so you are left with the outlines of the blocks forming the picture. Ask your child if they can find the blocks to make the picture. They may even like to make a puzzle for you. In this activity your child will practice estimating and matching size and shape.
• Encourage your child to sort the blocks by size.  Use comparison words like big and small.  Later when your child is asked to find the bigger number, he will have a concrete reference for size.  Also reinforce the use of comparison words with concrete objects by asking your child to stack the small block on the big block and the big block on the small block.  Stacking blocks of different sizes (and letting them fall) fosters the spatial reasoning needed in geometry and offers hands-on problem solving skills.
• Get out a tape measure and note specific differences in the sizes of the blocks.  By using tape measure, you introduce units of measure and fine tune comparisons. (Leave lots of time for this activity because both of you will want to measure everything—including each other.) Give your child a clipboard and pencil to record his findings.
• Play the build the tower game. Take turns at adding a block to build a tower. The object is to make it as high as you can without falling - If you are the one who brings the tower down then you are out and the other person collects the points (kind of like Jenga in reverse). Count the blocks as you put them on - however many block where used before the tower came down is how many points are given to the winner e.g. if the 16th block brings the tower down - the winner gets 15 points. Your child will learn spacial awareness and counting.

Block play is a rich parent/child activity—filled with touch, sight, sound, repetition, and imagination.  The guided, tactile learning activities listed here are meant to help you lead your child into a curiosity for the world of mathematics.  That sense of curiosity—the desire to know—is the most prized school-readiness skill and so easy to build.

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