Cuddly Campaign to Address Urgency of Early Math Skills

Bedtime Math, a nonprofit known for its mission to make math a fun part of kids’ everyday lives, launched March of the Stuffed Animals.

It is a free program offered throughout the month of March that provided preschoolers a rare, introduction to basic math skills – all with the help of their favorite stuffed animals.

Children marched in a Stuffed Animal Parade and conducted their own Crazy Creature Census, where they practiced counting, comparing sizes and grouping – essentially learning basic statistics in a playful, relaxed environment. More than 30,000 children participated in over 500 schools and libraries nationwide.

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“Kids build their math ability at a surprisingly young age – that’s their big opportunity. The MRI brain scans of 8-year-old children predict future math ability better than any standardized math skills or memory tests,” said Bedtime Math founder Laura Overdeck, citing a recent Stanford study.

“And yet only 14% of parents with preschool children do math at home. It’s urgent that we expose the next generation to playful, approachable math early in life, so they can build the brain structure to succeed in school.”

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Bedtime Math provided instructions on how to run the math activities, as well as copies of Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out, Overdeck’s third best-selling children’s book.

Most notably, participants went home with parent flyers about Bedtime Math’s app, which was recently shown by a University of Chicago study to increase kids’ math skills by several months in just one school year.

Bedtime Math plans to offer a similar preschool program again in fall 2016.

Bedtime Math Foundation is a nonprofit organization that seeks to put the fun and discovery back into learning math.