Maths at home for Kindergarten to Year 2: counting, place value and early addition

Parent guides. Facts checked on 16 October 2026 against the official pages listed at the foot.

Maths in the first three years of school is counting, then knowing what the counting means, then using it to add and take away. The NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus (2022) sets out what a child should be able to do by the end of Kindergarten and by the end of Year 2. Here is what it expects, what place value is and why teachers go on about it, and the everyday things at home that build it.

Try seven questions with your child on Learnest's own screens: the Kindergarten or Years 1 and 2 demo, or the free Year 2 check.

What does the syllabus expect in Kindergarten?

Early Stage 1 is Kindergarten. The syllabus outcome for numbers says a child "reads numerals and represents whole numbers to at least 20", and the content under it is specific.

Count forwards to at least 30, and count backwards from a number of 20 or less.
Say the number before and the number after a given number.
Read the numerals to at least 20, including zero, and compare and order numbers to 20.
Recognise how many are in a group of up to four without counting, which the syllabus calls subitising, and know the dot patterns on dominoes and the finger patterns for a number.
Combine two small groups, take some away from a group, share a collection equally and make equal groups, with objects first and then with numbers.

What does it expect in Years 1 and 2?

Stage 1 covers Years 1 and 2 together, and the number work grows from 20 to 1000. One outcome asks a child to apply "an understanding of place value and the role of zero to read, write and order two- and three-digit numbers"; another reasons about whole numbers to 1000, partitioning them into hundreds, tens and ones.

Counting: Counting forwards and backwards by ones from any number to at least 120, and saying the number before and after a two-digit number. Counting by twos from any starting point, and modelling odd and even numbers by pairing objects in two rows.
Tens and ones: Knowing that ten ones are the same as one ten, using ten as the reference for the numbers 11 to 20, counting a large collection by grouping it in tens, and finding the nearest ten on a number line.
Adding and taking away: The addition facts to 20 and the matching subtraction facts: doubles, near doubles, making ten, and counting on from the larger number. Then adding and subtracting two-digit numbers in Year 2 by splitting them into tens and ones.
Groups: Skip counting by twos, fives and tens, making equal groups and arrays, and sharing into halves and quarters. This is where the times tables of Years 3 and 4 begin.

What is place value, and why does it matter?

Place value is the idea that the 4 in 42 means four tens, not four. A child who counts to 100 by rote can still believe that 42 is four and two sitting next to each other, and that belief breaks the moment they add 42 and 30. The syllabus spends most of Stage 1 on it for that reason: grouping in tens, trading ten ones for a ten, and reading 305 as three hundreds, no tens and five ones.

The sign that it has clicked is a child who can say what 10 more than 42 is without counting. The sign that it has not is a child who writes 10042 for one hundred and forty-two.

How does early addition grow?

Addition goes through stages, and each is a real step. First a child counts everything: three blocks, four blocks, count them all, seven. Then they count on from the first number: three, then four, five, six, seven. Then they use a fact they know: three and four is seven, because three and three is six and one more. By the end of Year 2 the facts to 20 should come without counting, and bigger sums use them: 25 and 7 is 25 and 5 and 2, which is 32.

A child still counting on fingers in Year 2 is not behind; a child counting all seven blocks from one in Year 2 needs the next step shown. Subtraction follows the same path, and the syllabus teaches it beside addition as the same fact seen from the other side.

What can we do at home?

Count out loud with a purpose: steps, plates, the change in your hand. Start from odd places, such as 27, and count backwards from 30.
Ask how many without counting. Hold up fingers, drop a few pegs on the table, show a domino, and ask them to say it straight away.
Make ten. With ten pegs or ten fingers, how many ways can you split them? This one game builds most of the addition facts.
Group things in tens. Sort a jar of coins or a pile of blocks into tens and count the tens, then the ones left over.
Use real numbers: house numbers, the bus, the price of the bread, the pages left in the book.
Play with a pack of cards. Turn two over and add them; the first to say the answer keeps them.
Five minutes, most days. A game a child wants to play again teaches more than a worksheet they finish once.

Should we drill the facts?

Not before they are understood. A fact learnt as a sound with no picture behind it is forgotten by the next term, and a timer on a child who is still working the answer out teaches them to guess. Once a child can show you why 6 and 7 is 13, a minute of quick questions now and then is useful, because it shows which facts still need counting. The order the syllabus uses is the order that works: understand it, use it, then make it fast.

Questions parents ask

My child counts to 100 but cannot say what comes after 39. Is that a problem?

It is common. Counting by rote and understanding the counting sequence are different skills. The syllabus asks for the number before and after a given number, so practise starting from the middle: what comes after 39, before 60, after 99.

Should my child use their fingers?

Yes. The syllabus names finger patterns as a way to show a number, and fingers are a tool a child always has. Using them less comes on its own once the facts are known, and a child who hides them often counts in their head instead.

When do times tables start?

Skip counting by twos, fives and tens starts in Years 1 and 2, with equal groups and arrays. The multiplication facts themselves are a Years 3 and 4 outcome, which the times tables guide covers.

How Learnest helps

On maths days Learnest sets the skills in this guide at your child's level: counting, subitising and combining groups in Kindergarten, tens and ones, the facts to 20 and skip counting in Year 1, and two-digit adding and subtracting, numbers to 1000 and arrays in Year 2, with the usual slip named under a wrong answer. The questions are read aloud and a number pad takes the answer. The first maths day is a check that finds where your child is, the app teaches what is missing and brings it back in later reviews until it holds, and the nightly email names the one skill that slipped. Every question is Learnest's own.

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Sources

Checked 16 October 2026. Every date, number and rule above comes from these pages. If one of them has changed since, it is right and this page is behind.

Mathematics K-10 Syllabus (2022): overview on curriculum.nsw.edu.au
Mathematics K-10 Syllabus (2022), Early Stage 1 content on curriculum.nsw.edu.au
Mathematics K-10 Syllabus (2022), Stage 1 content on curriculum.nsw.edu.au

Learnest is not affiliated with ACARA, NESA, the NSW Department of Education or the Australian Maths Trust. This guide explains the published facts in Learnest's own words; the official pages above are the record.