Within reason

Practitioners can gently prompt children into identifying problems and trying solutions, as Sheila Ebbutt and Carole Skinner show In the Foundation Stage, mathematical problems are often just everyday events with a mathematical aspect: making sure that everyone has a biscuit; working out how to check that none of the teddies is missing; or deciding the best way to stack the large blocks. Children taking part in these activities are using the maths that they know to help them find solutions and are sometimes learning new facts and ideas on the way.