Helping Children Develop Early Mathematical Thinking by Cultivating Spatial Awareness

This book tells the story of Mat, a little mouse who wants a peach tree to grow beside his home. Although he is small and does not know all the answers, he learns to persevere with the help of his friends and eventually accomplishes something meaningful.

Through Mat’s journey, children are invited to notice the movements of up and down in the world around them: things falling down, shoots growing up, roots reaching down into the earth, and the peach tree stretching upward towards the light.

These early experiences of direction, position, movement, and space form an important foundation for later mathematical thinking. Ideas such as up, down, above, below, top, bottom, higher, and lower later appear in height, measurement, graphs, the vertical axis, increase and decrease, more and less and the rise and fall of quantities.

Warm, imaginative and thoughtful, this story helps children meet mathematical meaning through observation, wonder and story before they are asked to work with abstract symbols.

Digital high-quality illustrated storybook plus free Educator Guide. Suitable for children aged 5–9

The Educator Guide is filled with activities and games to help parents, teachers and homeschoolers explore the story more deeply.