Before a child formally learns about fractions, they’ve probably already poured half a cup of milk into a bowl or watched someone cut a pizza into eight equal slices. The kitchen is full of embedded mathematics: ratios, measurement, elapsed time, geometric reasoning about whether the cake will fit the pan. Most of it arrives through ordinary experience, not instruction. Children who engage regularly with informal numeracy at home tend to develop stronger applied math skills by the time they start school, and the evidence behind that isn’t just anecdotal.… Read more