Putting aside those board games where you roll the dice and move your game piece a certain number of spaces, there are plenty of other counting games that you can play. For example, dominoes can keep kids busy for hours. Recently, I was spending more that an hour playing with dominoes with my three year old. We counted the numbers of dots together. We counted the dominos being pour out we stacked them or put them in or out of the container. We lined each of them up and counted them together. Once all were lined up, I let him push the first domino to make them all fall down and he was so excited.
You can play games like hiding things in your house such as blocks, plastic eggs or marbles. Before you start hiding them, count them with your child. After that, they can go around the house finding them all. Once all of them have been found, they can count them again to make sure that they have all been found. For older kids, they can add or subtract to figure out how many they have left to find. In order to encourage and teach them about sharing, have two or more children hunt the objects. At the end of the time-limited hunt, count the number in each kid's bucket. Then get them to work together to make sure that everyone has the same amount in their bucket.
Dropping objects in a bucket or plastic containers that are lined up next to each other. Start counting how many objects are in each bucket. Also count the number of objects that did not make it into a container. Once again, for older kids, take the opportunity to incorporate addition or subtraction with older children.
Young children just love learning about eyes, ears, fingers, toes, etc. So start counting body parts together. For instance, you can ask them, "How many eyes does Mommy have?" or "How many fingers do you have?" Counting familiar household items such as pets, shoes or pots and pans.
As you know, children also love to eat snacks, so incorporate counting with snack time. Ask them, "How many Cheerios do you have?" or "How many Goldfish are in the blue cup? How many are in the red cup?" Count out snacks to make sure each child has the same amount. If one of the child has two more Cheerios than another one, teach them about sharing by asking them to give the other child one of their's so that they have the same amount.
Be creative in teaching your child how to count. They just love to count and learn, but they also want to have fun too. It is highly possible to incorporate both in daily activities. Lead them by example and show them how you count things. You don't want see them counting and reciting numbers all day long, but at the same time there are so many opportunities to help them learn their about numbers. Work together with your children to come up with your own fun games and counting activities.
