Mathnasium of Brooklyn Heights-Boerum Hill now offers a First Steps program for preschoolers and kindergartners. This program emphasizes learning the language of math through shapes, patterns, and group work.
Mathnasium of Brooklyn Heights–Boerum Hill has big summer plans. After celebrating its one-year anniversary in May, Mathnasium is now catering to younger students with their First Steps program, geared toward preschoolers and kindergartners.
First Steps, which will roll out this June, emphasizes learning the language of math for students who are too young to read or are just beginning the reading process. Center director Carl Giordano noticed the demand in the community for supplemental math education for younger children, despite the immaturity in reading levels. He took a cue from Mathnasium’s Bensonhurst location, which mirrors the Brooklyn Heights curriculum. “[In First Steps], we do more visual learning,” Giordano says. “We introduce the language of mathematics through shapes, patterns, and working as a group together in a circle.”
Giordano also dispelled the idea that math is an individual activity. At Mathnasium, “kids work on a team with other students to solve not only number crunching, but also strategy and logic.” Mathnasium knows the summer season is for fun too. When students sign up for a summer program, math board games and activities make up more of the curriculum than a typical school-year session. “The summer is a great time to not only catch up, but also prepare for the math curriculum students will face in the upcoming year,” Giordano says. With First Steps integrating math at a young age, it gives kids a chance to “spark an interest in math rather than develop a fear of number literacy.”
