Identifying the factors that foster math learning during early childhood is crucial given strong associations between these early skills and later school success. Despite theoretical arguments that the home environment and parents’ practices could support children's math abilities, little research addresses this possibility, especially compared to the breadth of research addressing literacy practices in the home. In this article, we review the literature on how the home numeracy environment may relate to children's math skills and argue that more methodological rigor is needed in these measures. Specifically, we highlight potential alternative dimensions of parents’ math practices beyond the conventional distinction between formal and informal activities, and we discuss directions for investigation. We argue that improving measures of the home numeracy environment may help resolve the mixed pattern of findings in the literature and further support the development of math skills in early childhood.

This article synthesizes findings from an international virtual conference, funded by the United States National Science Foundation, focused on the home mathematics environment (HME). In light of inconsistencies and gaps in research investigating relations between the HME and children’s outcomes, the purpose of the conference was to discuss actionable steps and considerations for future work. The conference was composed of international researchers with a wide range of expertise and backgrounds. Presentations and discussions during the conference centered broadly on the need to better operationalize and measure the HME as a construct—focusing on issues related to child, family, and community factors, country and cultural factors, and the cognitive and affective characteristics of caregivers and children. Results of the conference and a subsequent writing workshop include a synthesis of core questions and key considerations for the field of research on the HME. Findings highlight the need for the field at large to use multi-method measurement approaches to capture nuances in the HME, and to do so with increased international and interdisciplinary collaboration, open science practices, and communication among scholars.

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