Counting

I hated maths in school but really don't want my children to feel the same.  The way we learned it, maths seemed abstract and pointless, but it really is neither of those things.

When I think about it, counting has naturally taken place a lot around our home. Admittedly it has to do with behaviour management. I count to three to encourage behaviour change or they go on the naughty stool, and I count down from 10 every night so they know their shower or bath time is over.

A great counting game we played recently I got from an excellent book, called Brain Games by Jane Kemp and Clare Walters. I half filled a small jar with pasta shapes and asked B and Little Miss to guess how much pasta they thought was inside. We recorded the guesses, made sure they were happy with their guesses, then started counting the pasta. We each had a go of counting up to 10,  while I kept track. Whoever guessed the closest to the number was deemed the winner.

















I then pulled out a small packet of savoury biscuits (snack/lunch box size) from the pantry. We all had another guess and recorded the numbers. I was really surprised at how accurate their guesses were. We then opened the biscuits and had turns counting. This time though I got B to share out, or divide the biscuits between us, so we had the same amount each. Luckily there were 12 biscuits and the three of us got 4 each. Then we ate the biscuits so there was zero left.

But that wasn't enough for B, he wanted more. So I got out some little black eyed beans and put some in a bowl. This time they guessed big numbers seeing that lots went into the bowl. We tried even number counting too because there were so many beans. Little Miss had several turns counting up to ten, and I thought it was excellent exposure for her to the bigger numbers into the 50s 60s and 70s. B was deemed the winner as his bean guess was the closest, which made him very proud of himself. This is a game I will definitely play again.

Find out what other Mums are playing with at childhood 101.