Counting Moves

What To Do

If you have a high energy child, you can get them thinking about numbers while they burn off steam. Challenge your child to do 50 jumps or 12 laps around the backyard and then count along with them while they jump and run. When you’re climbing up and down stairs together, you can count the steps. See how many times you can throw a ball back and forth without dropping it. Or have your child try to keep a balloon in the air and count how many times the hit it back up. The great thing about counting moves is that it helps children pair each number word to an action, one-to-one, instead of running all the words together as they sometimes do when they’re counting objects. Whatever moves your child likes to make, see if there’s a fun way you can add counting to the mix.

Moving On

When your child is pairing the number words one-to-one with the actions, and they’re saying the words in the correct order, then they’ve got it. See if they can do as well when they’re counting objects.