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Ask HN: How do I start teaching my 1.5yo nephew math?

9 points by ad404b8a372f2b9 ↗ HN
I'm having my nephew over for a week while his parents are on vacation. I reckon it's my only chance to turn him into a math genius because his parents are more of the literature types and I don't have him over often.

I already have an array of non-math related, age-appropriate toys and I don't have high expectations, still I'd like to do something.

I already started trying to teach him to count with his fingers on the occasions where I babysit him. What else can I do, and what math related toys should I buy?

33 comments

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BWStearns
Even with a whole week I fear 1.5 is far too old to catch up.

It's too early for this but when he's old enough for videogames get him Kerbal and/or Factorio. Not math per se but technical thinking games (and if he gets obsessed enough with Kerbal he'll have to break out the math).

ad404b8a372f2b9
I bought him Spintronics in the same vein but I have to wait 7 years to gift it to him :D
leandot
I think 1.5yo is too young for maths. When they get a bit older - fun board games with maths mechanics (probabilities, dice rolls, etc.)
ragestorm
Indeed. At that age speaking from 1 to 10 is good enough. I doubt one with be able to communicate effectively.
ad404b8a372f2b9
Well I don't mean equations or anything like that. Even toddlers learn math in their own way and they say a good home math environment is important for the pre-school age range.
eimrine
I have some positive experience with using this book [1] to older students, I hope you can use your smartphone to translate it from Russian. The book is very much about sets which are shown as bags. It is supposed exactly for math geniuses as I can judge. I do not think showing this book from the screen is a good idea not only because it is on foreign for you language but also because it requires student to write down in it. But you can print a few translated by you pages or maybe recreate the illustrations with a real-world examples (bricks with letters, toys of defined parameters such as color, shape, type of entity etc, arranged in clearly visible groups).

Also if you play music try to return to the very roots of our civilization and explain Math like Pythagoras did - using consonance/dissonance of two strings with defined relative thickness/length.

And please do not introduce him to smartphones! If the parents did that (which is highly likely nowadays) at least do not show the kid that you have it somewhere in your house or your effort will be wasted!

[1] https://file.11klasov.net/1733-matematika-1-klass-uchebnik-c...

PS. The first task requires you to see what are rows, what are columns and a way of visualizing 12345, I tell you this because it was hard to me when I first time opened the book.

ad404b8a372f2b9
I spent 20 minutes looking for a copy online before realizing your link had one haha. Thank you, it's very cute, I'll print it and see if he takes to it. He has a lot of pop-up books that he adores so even if he doesn't get it I'm sure he'll be entertained.

So far no smartphone for him thankfully.

The Pythagoras thing is interesting, I'll look into it. His mom bought him a Kalimba so he has an interest in music already, maybe it'll play into it.

Axsuul
Just let him be a kid.
ad404b8a372f2b9
Nothing in my post suggests I intend to do otherwise. You have given me no useful information.
[dead] zyilipo
[flagged]
ad404b8a372f2b9
Obviously said in jest, and followed by the whole disclaimer "I already have an array of non-math related, age-appropriate toys and I don't have high expectations" for people who have a hard time recognizing humour that I knew would come.
Projectiboga
Language acquisition and physical activity are much more crucial at that age. A little counting is ok if it involves physical activities. Kids should be playing, especially with other kids through age 6. Reading and talking with them too. But by age 2 you need to be asking them open ended questions.
ad404b8a372f2b9
He gets plenty of those, he drags me all around the house by the hand and we talk about the things he sees, it's a whole workout keeping that kid entertained.
agubelu
I suggest watching the entirety of the Feynman Lectures on Physics together. It should be some very light content for a 1 year old!
ad404b8a372f2b9
We already watched those.
injb
Baby Rudin? Sorry couldn't resist.
ad404b8a372f2b9
Lol I think he'll have to read that one to me, never could get through a Rudin.
kej
Anecdotal, but I think my son's math skills owe at least as much to the Numberblocks videos [0] as they do to my math degree and insistence on showing my kids some related interesting thing whenever they have a math question.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPlwvN0w4qFSP1FllALB92w

mrobins
Anecdotally noticed the same.l with my 3.5 year old. Also in addition (pun intended) to what she’s learned it’s made her much more curious about a bunch of math concepts.
ad404b8a372f2b9
That's cute, I'll see if he likes it. I've read song based acquisition of numeracy is recommended so I have a few toys that sing the numbers too.
jjgreen
Know what, brother? I tell you that studying the humanities in high school is more important than mathematics — mathematics is too sharp an instrument, no good for kids.

Stephan Banach quoted by Steinhaus in Through a reporter’s eyes, Roman Kaluza, 1995

vlod
Not sure if Lego is appropriate for a 1.5 year old (I would guess not), but growing up I didn't have many toys but one thing I played with the most, was a pathetic looking lego set.

I'm not talking the fancy stuff you get nowadays with wheels/pullels or where you can build the Millennium Falcon (I was so envious), but about 50 4x2 different coloured bricks and maybe 5 6x1 long ones.

But man, the amount of creativity that sparked in my younger cell was amazing. The amount of crudely built spaceships I built kept me entertained for hours.

Constraints breeds creativity. A lesson I still try and apply to by daily life/work.

ad404b8a372f2b9
I'm afraid that's a little too early for him, he's at the eat everything phase so I'm sticking to big toys. I have so much lego stuff to give him though once he'll be older!
turnsout
Look up Maria Montessori—she pioneered a structured and tangible way for kids to learn math concepts.
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jasonpeacock
You want to focus on number theory, not math. Think about things like "this stack has more blocks than that stack" or "let's make stacks of the same size".

You could make 2 equal groups of blocks (e.g. 3 each), then move a block from A to B and show that B has more blocks now. Or create 2 unequal groups of blocks and have them add blocks to make them equal.

Or have containers with different quantities in them, or of different sizes, and have them arrange them in order.

That will be plenty of effort for just 1wk with a 18mo child. I have a child of the same age - they have amazing interest in things around them and very good memory, but teaching concepts takes focus and attention which they don't have as much of.

As others have said, at this age just playing and exploring (and love/attention) is the best thing you can do for them. Studies have shown that math can easily be picked up much later (age 4-5) without detriment.

meristohm
Assuming your goal of turning your 18-month-old nephew into a genius is tongue-in-cheek, and that you just want to lay some groundwork for numeracy, I'd say add in some number words in your play together. Make trades, make up puzzles and if they aren't fun don't sweat it, move on. Be a caring, attentive, curious, kind, and intellectually humble adult in this child's life.
AlanYx
Take a visit to an educational supply store... there are a lot of tangible math games for very young kids. One that works well at very young ages is a physical balancing game. You get a balance and a variety of tokens (some that look like blocks or small animals, etc.) and some that look like actual numerals. The numerals have the same weight as the same number of tokens. So kids can put the number 3 on one side of the balance and then learn that they have to stack 3 tokens on the other side to make the balance balance. You can also ask questions, e.g., you can place the number 3 on one side of the balance and then one token on the other side and ask them to predict how many tokens need to be added to that one token to add to the number on the other side. And you can make it progressively more complex, e.g., stack the number 3 and number 2 on one side of the balance and then let kids figure out how many individual tokens need to be stacked on the other side to amount to the sum of 3 and 2. The pivoting action of the balance tends to keep kids' attention (but be realistic about the attention spans of young kids... we're talking under 15 minutes a session).
simonblack
Why? He's a child. Apart from counting with integers, his tiny brain is too undeveloped to be worth your time and angst, just yet.

Heinlein - "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It only wastes your time and annoys the pig."