Scientists have discovered how children learn maths at home — without even realising it

A new study has shown that, during such home-based engineering activities, children use geometry, measurements and proportions, even if they do not refer to it as maths.

The study has been published in the journal Mathematical Thinking and Learning.

The main conclusion is simple: parents do not need to be maths teachers to help their child think mathematically. Sometimes it is enough to do DIY projects together, ask questions and discuss why one design works and another does not.

Details

Researcher Amber Simpson from Binghamton University and her colleagues studied how children learn STEM skills at home. To do this, they used special kits containing engineering tasks for children in Years 2 to 6.

In one of the tasks, the children were asked to use household materials to build a prototype shelter that would help animals survive extreme weather – such as heat, cold, an earthquake or a tornado.

Importantly, there was no single correct answer to these challenges. Families had to investigate the problem, devise a plan, build a structure, test it, improve it and discuss the result.

And it was precisely at this point that maths came into play. The children counted, estimated, compared, measured and thought about shape, size and stability.

How children ‘learnt maths’ without a textbook

Seven families from the north-east and the Midwestern United States took part in the study. Researchers analysed video recordings of children and adults working together on home-based engineering tasks. A total of 12 sessions, lasting around 21 hours, were examined.

In the recordings, the children employed various types of mathematical thinking. For example, one child measured a foot using their index finger, treating it as a makeshift ‘ruler’. Other children, whilst building a birdhouse, devised a ledge for a bird to perch on and a sloping roof to provide shelter from the rain.

This is maths in everyday life. Not in the form of examples on the blackboard, but in the form of questions: how long should a part be, what angle should be chosen, will the structure support the weight, is there enough space, what will happen if the shape is changed?

One of the study’s key findings concerns parents. It is often thought that adults cannot help children with maths if they themselves have a poor memory of school rules and formulas.

But the authors show otherwise: parents and other adults can support a child’s mathematical thinking through everyday activities. For example, by asking: ‘How did you measure that?’, ‘Why does the roof need to be sloped?’, ‘What would happen if we made the base wider?’

Questions like these help a child to reason. They don’t just make a craft project; they start to explain, test and improve their solution.

Why this is important

This research offers a fresh perspective on home learning. It’s not about the kitchen or the living room replacing school. School maths is important. But alongside it, there is another kind of maths — the real-life, everyday, practical sort.

A child might not like the exercises in their exercise book, but they can still think clearly when they need to build a tower out of boxes, cut paper into equal pieces, work out the space needed for a shelf, or understand why a structure is collapsing.

Activities like these help children see maths not as a set of daunting rules, but as a tool for solving real-life problems.

Background

Educational research is increasingly highlighting the importance of informal learning. This is learning that takes place not in the classroom, but in everyday life: at home, in clubs, museums, libraries, workshops and family projects.

Simpson has previously studied ‘maker’ activities – sessions where children create things with their hands. Such situations often involve measurement, spatial reasoning and curiosity – key elements of the mathematical experience.

New research builds on this idea and shows that the home environment can also be a place where a child develops mathematical thinking.

Limitations

The findings should not be overgeneralised. Only seven families took part in the study, so it cannot be said that such activities automatically improve all children’s maths marks.

This is not a large-scale experiment, but a qualitative study: the researchers closely observed how families interacted and where mathematics emerged in their activities. The main conclusion is therefore a cautious one: home-based engineering tasks may create a favourable environment for mathematical thinking, but their effects require further study.

Source

Study: Amber Simpson, P. Kaur Bharaj, A. Marciuc, “Cultivating mathematical thinking through home-based engineering tasks”, Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 2026.