The ECMG postcards provide prompts for families to use in everyday situations to promote mathematical thinking in young children.
For each, there is a version for younger children in green print and one for older children in blue print.
You can print out or send them electronically to families.
The family postcards are available in other languages. We are very grateful to the volunteers who provided these translations.
ECMG”s Maths Family Postcards are a ‘useful link’ on the government’s Best Start in Life, ‘Starting Reception’ website (under ‘Playing, creativity and curiosity’ in the ‘Growing Independence’ section).
The postcards include an image to show the activity and some speech bubbles with ideas of what an adult or older child might say during these activities. It is important that children’s play is not taken over by an eager family member or made less interesting to the child by forcing mathematics into an activity at the wrong time. This is why there is a reminder in the bar at the bottom of each postcard to observe what the child is doing and look for what they are enjoying or are interested in, before using the prompts so that the prompts are used to engage the child further rather than putting them off. On each postcard there is a QR code to the ECMG website so families can find guidance and other postcards if they are interested. Whilst the postcards were designed with families in mind, they may also be useful for practitioners..
