I love creating DIY puzzles for my kids. I usually use cardboard but for sure popsicle sticks, wooden blocks and even fabrics can be used to make DIY puzzles. My favorite one is cardboard, because it is always very easy to give shapes and color cardboards.
You can use colorful papers, cardboard or even an ordinary white paper to practice 10 more/10 less/1 more/1 less.
Are you ready to count? My 3 yo boy has been practicing numbers recently. Now it is 1-2-3 time for us. Let’s find something in nature to practice counting then. Sticks, leaves, cones and whatever you find is great to give a start. 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣
You can create many options with this idea. Addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.
This is a fun way of practicing some math. I don’t know any kid who doesn’t love gems. You can use this kind of loose parts to make math more attractive.
While counting, possible to strengthen hand muscles. Simple setups are great helpers for parents. Yes, it is very easy setup and includes many skills in it like color sorting, counting, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control and more.
Here is super simple play idea to develop little ones’ math skills. There are 15 leaves on the branch. The autumn has just arrived and the leaves have turned yellow. 1 leaf fell down, remained 14 leaves. 1 more leaf fell and remained 13. We put all the fallen leaves into the box. At the same time, the fallen leaves are increasing 1,2,3,4,5… Here is our idea, you can develop it as you want.
Stamping is always too much for the kids. So you can turn this fun into counting activity.
There are many ways of preparing DIY puzzles. You can use cardboards, popsicle sticks, papers, fabrics etc. I had prepared these puzzle 3 years ago (in 2017) for MB when he was almost 3 yo. Now OT is playing with them. You can guess how happy and emotional I am💜 It is good that using popsicle sticks makes it very durable.
Q-tips are great for tracing activities. If you haven’t tried to use them yet, you can give a start with easy lines and numbers.
