#25 For All Ages

For All Ages

Grown-ups: Make a counting book about your favorite story or topic. It’s a pleasant art project, and a way to share your interests with kids. If you need inspiration, check out “The Book of Threes” at www.threes.com

Babies: Make collections about topics the baby loves. Use the same method for each collection to point out quantities. For example, put sticky notes on toy truck’s wheels, each of the three bears in the book, or baby’s own two feet. Name small quantities without counting, because babies can instantly distinguish quantities up to five (subitizing).

Toddlers and Young Kids: Make a photo counting book about your child playing with iconic quantities. Children love to look at themselves working on something. It is hard to find many quantities in the same context, and young children may not care about this aspect of the activity. If your child finds an example from another context, just start one more collection.

Big Kids: It may be very hard to find some numbers in a given context. There may be a reason worth exploring! For example, you can make an excellent counting book out of animal legs, as long as you stay with even numbers, because animals have line symmetry.