Today I’m continuing my topic of activity ideas to include your toddler in “school” while homeschooling. On to playing and learning with numbers! For this one, your toddler should be past the “put everything in the mouth” stage.
Like I mentioned in an earlier post introducing this topic, Israel could already recite numbers up to ten. I don’t think he really grasped the fact that each number represented an amount though. I grabbed my mancala game board (though a bunch of little cups or bowls could substitute) and put a paper with numbers one through ten in each spot. Then he used dry beans and, with just a little help, put the right number in each hole.
You could say he LOVED it… And that it was so fun that big sister couldn’t keep her hands off it either.
If your toddler is a little more advanced than this you could fill each spot with some beans and have them count and match the right number to them.
Again, with a lot of homeschooling things, take advantage of everyday situations to talk about numbers and amounts and count.
And then, of course, let them play with the beans after because you can probably get a couple hours of school done with your older one(s) while the toddler just dumps beans from container to container and throws them all over the house. Beans are way too much fun!
When your toddler is more advanced you can make a 123 game like this one below to mix it up a little. They can make it with you and color in the items and help decide which items to use. Then they match the number to the amount of objects in the square.
