February 10, 2010

Fun With Counting

I'm always looking for ways to teach my daughters new things, or emphasize what they already know, without making it seem like they're learning. Hubby had an idea after lunch the other day that almost backfired.
The girls brought home Valentine's Day heart candies from school (you know, the candy with messages). Our daughters always want a treat with lunch, so I usually oblige them with a small piece of candy, a cookie, or whatever fun treat I can find. It's only once a day and it's the only "bad food" they typically have all day. The one stipulation: they have to eat all their lunch first. Yes, there have been days when they don't finish their lunch and simply say "I'm not hungry so I won't be eating a cookie today."
Anyway, Hubby decided they could have as many pieces of candy as they could count. I decided to sit back and see what happened. Roo, Tortilla and Cakes each became distracted around 5. They wanted more and could have counted more, but were more interested in eating the candy. Then came Sue Sue. I knew we could be in some serious trouble. When she hit 10, I distracted her. I'm convinced that, if given the chance, she would have hit at least 20... and while I'm not a sugar-phobe, that seemed like way too much sugar to me.
Still, they all had fun with this exercise, so when I'm at the grocery store today I'll be picking up some treats other than candy for them to count and eat (blueberries, grapes, etc).
Reminder: There's still time to enter the $50 Safeway gift card giveaway.

7 comments:

Sadia said...

How funny! Melody can count to 39 without assistance, but the other day got to 100 with some prompting. Then she asked, "Did I do all the numbers?" ... and we discussed the concept of infinity (but steered clear of the word, for now).

Quadmama said...

Oh thank goodness Sue Sue didn't get to 100. Not sure how I would have explained that she wasn't getting 100 pieces of candy!!

maryanne @ mama smiles said...

Counting is one thing Emma doesn't do. I'm not sure why numbers are so much trouble for her when she does great with letters. She can count ten fingers, but struggles to count ten objects - and I don't think I've ever gotten her to count past 14.

Stephanie said...

What a fun way to learn!

debi9kids said...

Little smarties :)

Marilynne said...

I loved the story.

reanbean said...

What a fun activity! I'd be okay with it for now since my almost two-year-olds rarely get past 5.

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