Counting Bears

I’m a firm believer in following your children’s lead when it comes to learning, especially before the age of six. Some things we just do on a regular basis and I never think about it being a lesson; like when we count the number of stairs, we count candles on birthday cakes, we count cars, we count number of ingredients, etc. Counting has just been something we’ve done together since I can remember. While there’s tons of flash cards you can get online or even at the Target dollar spot, I’m not a huge fan of flash cards.

I do, however, LOVE these cards we got from Harbor & Sprouts for a couple of different reasons. I love that there’s a card for showing the amount and the word, then another card in the set for showing the actual number and giving opportunity for your kiddo to put the amount OR write the number in the blank space.

These last few weeks, we’ve been working on number names and count sequence for numbers 0-10, reading numerals and represent a number of objects from 0 to 10.

I LOVE using manipulatives like counting bears or you can use hot wheels, spoons, socks, literally anything you have 10 items.

We count bears for each card with the colored dots - working towards the goal of knowing number names and count sequence for numbers 0-10. Then, we read the numeral and used the counting bears to represent a number of objects from 0-10.

Our “lessons” always take less than 10 minutes and I try to make it a fun game! Again, the best learning comes through play at this age, so most of the time, he’ll come back to wanting to play one of these counting games.