Stuffed Animals Help Bridgewater Children Learn Math

Bridgewater, NJ -- The Preschool Place & Kindergarten was one of 500 schools and libraries across the country that hosted Bedtime Math’s March of the Stuffed Animals, a free program during the month of March that provided preschoolers a rare, groundbreaking introduction to basic math skills – all with the help of their favorite stuffed animals.

Bedtime Math is a national nonprofit known for its mission to make math a fun part of kids’ everyday lives.

Children marched in a Stuffed Animal Parade and conducted their own Crazy Creature Census, where they practiced counting, comparing sizes and grouping – essentially learning basic statistics in a playful, relaxed environment. More than 30,000 children participated nationwide.

“Kids build their math ability at a surprisingly young age - that’s their big opportunity. The MRI brain scans of 8-year-old children predict future math ability better than any standardized math skills or memory tests,” said Laura Overdeck, founder of Bedtime Math, citing a recent Stanford study. “And yet only 14% of parents with preschool children do math at home. It’s urgent that we expose the next generation to playful, approachable math early in life, so they can build the brain structure to succeed in school.”

Bedtime Math provided instructions on how to run the math activities, as well as copies of Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out, Overdeck’s third best-selling children’s book. Most notably, participants went home with parent flyers about Bedtime Math’s app, which was recently shown by a University of Chicago study to increase kids’ math skills by several months in just one school year.

“The Preschool Place and Kindergarten was excited to host this program because it is consistent with our philosophy of teaching early math skills through activities and games that naturally interest preschool children” director Carol Rubnitz said. “It was fun for the children to use their stuffed animals for counting, sorting, and measurement activities. There are so many ways math skills can be incorporated into everyday activities, and Bedtime Math offers some great tools for parents to get their children excited about math!”

Bedtime Math plans to offer a similar preschool program again in fall 2016.

For more information about Bedtime Math and March of the Stuffed Animals, visit www.bedtimemath.org.

--By Janelle Kirk