Cheerios to Learning!

Cheerios are seen not only on our tables during breakfast but now also on our play table.... purely because I will not be so paranoid to see ants crawling around, unlike in Singapore. And we can get to eat them as a treat after playing with them. (yes yes, I know what you are thinking, I will give them the ones in the box instead of those they have been meddling with.) In fact, hub's job was snacking with them right after... no doubt of the reason why he was sitting nearby while I was teaching them important life lessons - Counting.

I pasted some numbers on the table and then place playdoh at each number. Then I placed a stick on it. It was actually pretty messy because they took out the playdoh and played with it before my game and this home made playdoh was a little dry. However, it still served a good purpose in counting with Ko. My intention was just to let her count as much as possible, in different scenarios, in different times, with different objects. At two years old, she tend to count way beyond what was truly presented. For 1 and 2, it was ok, but beyond that, like if there were 3 dogs, she would go on counting 4,5,6. This game also encouraged finger training skills as the holes on the cheerios were small and she would try to put through the stick.

After that, I used the cheerios to count backwards from 100 with Imm. We have been doing some forward counting for a few days.

Before counting backwards, I have been doing counting to 100 using these monsters. I knew he loved monsters but I never know he liked it so much to want to count from 1-100 in 2 days straight. I then realised he did not know his tens... for example, after 29, he did not know how to say 30.

See him arranging these monsters. It was also easier that the 21, 31, 41 monsters looked the same and it was easier to spot. He also counted together with me.

Here is the monster link: http://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-preschool-counting-printable-monster-count-clip-cards/

Mission accomplished!!

Then, I worked on the tens issue with these cupcakes and singing a song that I know from Shichida. I just wished I had the abacus to show him. I wanted to count to only 100 but he wanted me to use all the cupcakes.

Here is the cupcakes link: http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/2011/09/counting-by-10s-cupcake-cards-free.html

Some other things I did also with Ko of counting 1-10 was using pebbles to drop in the cups.