In this session we talked about how important it is for children to learn to count in real life situations. 

We explored a range of ways we already encourage our children to count, when helping to lay the table, counting the number of buttons on their shirt and counting the number of sweets each person has.

By making sure there are enough plates for the number of people eating, encourages children to think about making sense of counting as well as involving them in real life situations.

We experienced how it feels for children to learn numbers by playing a game called ‘Letterland’ which highlighted some of the difficulties children face when learning to recognise numbers. This helps us to think about how best to help them as parents and educators.

All families took a game home to play named ’10 lovely things’,  to help practice counting objects and using the associated language, such as:

• Who has the most/least things?
• How many more have I got?
• How many more are needed to make 10 things?

 

We look forward to hearing how the children and adults enjoy playing the game and making up new rules.