Barbara Schindelhauer advocates education through the eyes of children. Her mission is to unlock the full potential of early mathematics education and to promote equal opportunities for all children while preserving the joy of early childhood. She is the co-author of Germany’s bestselling Numberland handbook, and her latest rhyming children’s picture book, My Garden is a Square, has already been published in eight languages.
In 2004, while volunteering at her children’s kindergarten in Germany, Barbara encountered the peer-reviewed holistic early mathematics concept developed by early childhood education expert Dr. Gerhard Friedrich. Deeply impressed by its impact on children of all backgrounds and their educators, she left her corporate career and, with Dr. Friedrich serving as scientific advisor, founded the ifvl to make Let’s Visit Numberland accessible to early years settings.
Since then, Barbara has been training educators in Germany and around the world. Together with experts in the field, she continues to refine and develop practical, accessible resources for educators in any setting, increasingly, for families.
Barbara is a regular keynote speaker and workshop leader at international conferences, with a particular focus on early mathematics and literacy. She also collaborates with NGOs worldwide to support high-quality early childhood education through a TALULAR approach.
In this session, Barbara Schindelhauer introduces the Numberland approach, a research-backed, play-based method for building early mathematical understanding in children aged three to six. Barbara explains how Numberland translates the abstract language of maths into a rich, concrete and emotionally engaging world that children genuinely want to explore, supporting not only maths but also language development, personal, social and emotional development, and cross-curricular learning, all through imaginative play.
In this episode you’ll:
- Explore how Number Street, number houses and garden activities build subitising, partitioning, number bonds and one-to-one correspondence through play
- Discover why Numberland supports language development and works especially well for children with EAL
- Find out how the “trickster” character builds emotional resilience around making mistakes
- Learn how to get started in your own setting, from enhancing your maths area to free downloadable resources
Watch this session to see Numberland in action and discover how one approach can weave together numbers, shapes, patterns and language in a way children genuinely enjoy.
Links:
https://www.numberland.net/contact/teacher-training-numberland-number-sense
https://www.earlyyears.tv/lets-visit-numberland-an-early-years-maths-approach/
Episode Content
Episode Includes
- 1 Video
