Mom and Dad, you better break out the building blocks.

Proposed changes to Virginia's math standards could mean kindergartners would need to master counting to 100 -- 70 more numbers than they do now -- while fourth-graders would start learning basic algebra formulas.

It's all in an effort to better prepare students for higher math more quickly.

The Virginia Board of Education is scheduled to review the state's math Standards of Learning, the topics students must learn in each grade level, and adopt them this winter, according to its documents on the topic.

The host of changes out for public comment are designed to prepare more students for Algebra I by the eighth grade and align with recommendations from teachers, parents, college officials and a bevy of national researchers. Higher math more quickly means more advanced skills, such as calculus, could be taught before high school.

The changes include an increase in the quantities of elementary-level counting and multiplication skills, a transition to algebra for middle-schoolers and the goal of getting all college-bound students through Algebra II.

Many of the proposals also mesh with the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, which in 2006 started looking at what students should be learning to compete globally with countries whose students consistently score better in math. Ultimately, the group decided that students need a stronger understanding of basic skills, especially whole numbers and fractions.

"That's what we need our kids to be really good at," said Jonathan Schulz, interim math supervisor for Montgomery County's schools.

Schulz was a fifth-grade teacher before leading the school system's math programs. He talked about some of his concerns at a public hearing on the standards Monday evening at Pulaski County High School. It was one of five across the state. Three separate hearings will take place today. The closest is in Lynchburg at Linkhorne Middle School.

Schulz said he sees the changes to the state standards as a step in the right direction, but added that some teachers have expressed concern that they're being asked to do too much.

Some grade levels are asked to master between 14 and 21 standards, as well as a lists of subtopics.

The proposed changes do streamline some of the current requirements. Like Schulz, Virginia's Council for Teacher's of Mathematics welcomes revisions that it says would prepare younger students for their next grade level.

Still, some teachers say they'd rather focus even more on mastering topics, rather than a breadth of topics.

"They're trying to make big jumps too fast instead of when they move it down, preparing these kids more," said Mike Carrow, an eighth- and ninth-grade algebra teacher at Radford High School. "I just wish they would give us time to focus on what we need to focus on."

Carrow said he has to complete about six standards in one semester, which leaves about two weeks for each topic.

"It's just limiting us and not allowing us to reach those kids," he said.

Already his school system is working to rid middle grades of a two-part algebra course, which he said could leave fewer students prepared for his courses.

The changes to the SOLs aren't likely to help, he said. "It's going to be difficult. I just don't think everybody is math capable, no matter how hard they work at it some people just struggle with math."