Unlocking Maths at Home with 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five
19/12/25
As practitioners and educators working in early years settings, we know that the home‑learning environment plays a pivotal role in children’s mathematical development. Research shows that what families do with children at home makes a bigger difference than parents’ own education or social class. Our 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five initiative offers a fantastic way to support parents and carers to engage with their children in low‑cost, fun, meaningful experiences, many of which lend themselves perfectly to early mathematical thinking.
Children’s most powerful mathematical learning often happens through playful exploration and many of the 50 experiences naturally include mathematical opportunities, counting, comparing, measuring, sorting, predicting, even if they are not explicitly labelled maths activities.
The activities are accessible and flexible, they don’t rely on expensive resources or worksheets, making them ideal for all families. Promoting Cultural Capital & Community Engagement in Early Years Settings
1. Counting and Number Recognition:
Many activities involve counting objects, steps, or actions, like stacking blocks, picking leaves, or throwing balls. Repeated counting helps children recognise numbers and understand quantity.
2. Sorting and Categorising:
Tasks such as grouping natural materials by size, colour, or shape encourage children to notice similarities and differences, laying the foundation for sorting, patterns, and classification skills.
3. Measuring and Comparing:
Simple activities like filling containers with water or sand, comparing stick lengths, or observing which object floats or sinks introduce basic measurement and comparison concepts.
4. Spatial Awareness and Shapes:
Building dens, arranging objects, or tracing shapes fosters an understanding of space, position, and geometry. Children learn about above/below, inside/outside, and around, which supports spatial reasoning.
5. Patterns and Sequencing:
Activities that involve repeating actions, sounds, or visual patterns (like footsteps, claps, or bead threading) strengthen pattern recognition and logical thinking.
6. Problem-Solving and Estimation:
Tasks like navigating a nature trail, balancing on logs, or fitting objects together encourage critical thinking, prediction, and estimation skills, all precursors to formal maths learning.
Ideas for Promoting Maths at Home Using 50Things to Do
Here are practical ways you can support parents/carers in settings to use 50Things as a gateway for home‑mathematics:
1. Share a suggested activity — ideas from the list:
Share a suggested activity from the list each week/month via a newsletter or home-learning sheet.
#34 In a nature walk, children might collect leaves, stones, or seedpods. These become a rich set of loose parts for later counting, sorting, or comparing.
#26 In water play or filling containers, children can explore capacity, volume, and comparison.
#48 Creating leaf rubbings or shape hunts bring geometry, shape recognition, and positional language.
#33 Den building or construction tasks invite spatial planning, symmetry, and measuring of spaces.
2. Provide the maths-language prompt for parents
Encourage them to ask children questions like: "How many did you get?", "Which is bigger/smaller?", "Can you put them from smallest to biggest?", "What do you think will happen if we add one more?"
3. Encourage reflection
After the activity, invite children (supported by parents) to talk about what they did: "I found 4 leaves, then one fell so now I have 3…" This builds children's ability to reason and communicate mathematically.
4. Link to setting's observation/focus
If in your nursery you are focussing on "comparing size" or "early number sense", communicate this to parents so the home and setting are aligned.
5. Promote the app/website
The 50 Things app and website provide families with many activity ideas. Having the link in the blog or home-learning handout means parents can browse and select activities that fit their context.
St Edmund's Nursery School and Children's Centre
The 2023 Impact Report of 50Things highlights that the initiative helps parents feel more confident to support their children’s learning at home, and boosts the quality of the home‑learning environment.
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Key messages for parents and carers:
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By promoting 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five in your setting and guiding parents to engage in these experiences at home, you’re enabling children to build early mathematical understanding in a playful, natural way. The home becomes an enriching learning space, and children enter school with stronger foundations, greater confidence and a readiness to explore number, shape, space and measure.
In short: 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five turns everyday play into hands-on, practical maths experiences, making early numeracy natural, playful, and meaningful.