Celebrating National Numeracy Day: Supporting Early Maths Skills Through Play
Early numeracy skills help babies and toddlers build confidence with numbers, patterns and problem-solving through play and everyday experiences.
At Water Babies, these skills are developed in every lesson through songs, games, movement and repetition. By continuing these familiar activities at home, especially with characters and play your little one already recognises, you can help reinforce that learning in a way that feels natural, engaging and connected to their swim journey.
✅ In this guide, we explore:
- How simple play supports early numeracy development
- Ways to build maths confidence at home
- Toys that help reinforce counting, sorting and patterns
Supporting numeracy skills at home
The best way to build early maths confidence is simple: keep it playful.
Here are three brilliant Water Babies toys that support early numeracy skills:
1. Chunky wooden puzzle (12 months+)
Perfect for little hands, these encourage:
- Matching and sorting
- Shape recognition
- Early counting and grouping
Our chunky puzzle features colour-matching and number-matching pieces (1–3), helping little ones build early counting, recognition and sorting skills through simple, hands-on play.
With the Swimvincibles characters alongside Bubba the Whale, children can engage with familiar faces while reinforcing some of the skills they’re developing in the pool, helping learning feel more consistent and memorable.
2. Jigsaw puzzles (3 years+)
Puzzles help children:
- Develop problem-solving skills
- Understand shapes and spatial relationships
- Learn sequencing (first, next, last)
Our Swimvincible jigsaw sets include two puzzles in one box, with coloured backings (blue and red) to help little ones easily identify matching pieces, making sorting and problem-solving more intuitive.
Featuring familiar Water Babies settings like Cloudfish Cove with Finn and Lighthouse Lagoon with Saffi, these puzzles help bring learning to life by connecting playtime at home with the world they recognise from their lessons.
3. Stacking cups
A simple classic, but full of learning:
- Introduces size, order and sequencing
- Builds understanding of quantity and comparison
- Encourages problem-solving and experimentation
The set of 9 stacking cups used in Water Babies lessons includes letters, numbers, shapes and colours to support a range of early learning concepts.
Some cups also feature drainage holes for water play, making them perfect for bath time or splashy learning, while encouraging counting, pouring and cause-and-effect discovery in a way that mirrors their experience in the pool.
Why early numeracy matters
Early numeracy lays the foundation for more than just maths. It helps children:
- Solve problems and think logically
- Understand the world around them
- Build confidence in learning
- Prepare for future education
And it all starts through play.
Learning through Water Babies lessons
Did you know your baby is already building early maths skills in the pool? Research has shown that little ones who attend swimming lessons are likely to be 6 months ahead in mathematics reasoning.
Our lessons are designed around fun, repeatable activities that help children recognise and build on early numeracy skills.
What that looks like in practice
In lessons, little ones might:
- Count “1, 2, 3” as they swim between carer and teacher
- Take part in treasure hunts, collecting toys and counting them back together
- Join in with songs like “Five little speckled frogs” or “3 in the bed”
- Count down before jumping into the water or splash a certain number of times
They're also learning to:
- Recognise size (big vs small toys)
- Identify colours and objects
- Understand patterns and sequences through songs and routines
Because these activities are repeated each week, children build confidence by recognising what to do next and joining in.
Find out how Water Babies lessons support early numeracy skills in our main blog.