how to teach my toddler to count Archives

We made some craft flowers and picked some flowers from our backyard for this Roll to Fill Counting Game. It’s so simple to setup and my daughter loved it so much! Play it too! Plus, free number flashcards! Yay!

My daughter (almost 3yo) is more into learning numbers than she is letters. One day she just decided to point to some numbers and ask me what they were.

And she sure loves to count. I am so awestruck that she can count to 13.

Maybe she is going to be really awesome at math. I don’t know.

So, today, I decided to combine a few of her favorite things (flowers, numbers and sticking things in buckets).

She wanted to play this game over and over and over again. So, it was a hit at our house.

I, of course, had to make some craft flowers with her. But, you can totally skip that part and just use real flowers like we did too. Or cut some off an artificial bouquet. Heck! Combine all three (craft, real and artificial) and make it a sensory activity too.

And what’s great about this game is you don’t have to use flowers. It can be whatever your preschooler is into (cars, blocks, balls, puzzle pieces, crayons, the list can go on forever).

Pick what interests your preschooler, and the game will keep going. Yay!

We made a Little Blue Truck’s Christmas Craft to go along with the book. My kiddos have been having so much fun delivering trees. Make it too!

December is my favorite month of the year. I love the decorations and the activities. I love the hot cocoa and lights. It’s so cheery.

We started our advent activities yesterday. I made some cards, printed them out, laminated them and cut them to size. We are drawing one card a day and doing that activity. If you’d like a set, you can get them as a thank you for signing up for my newsletter: FREE Christmas Advent Activity Cards.

One of the activities is to read Christmas books. So, today we’re reading Little Blue Truck’s Christmas (aff).

I love that the book has counting in it. I can teach my son to count and how to do some subtraction. It’s an easy read. So, my son can retell the story to me too! By kindergarten, children will be asked to retell the main points of a story.

If you haven’t noticed yet (tehe), my friend Beth (from Days with Grey) and I have been teaming up each month to provide a book and a craft/activity that you can do with your kiddos to help prepare them for story retelling.

They absolutely don’t have to master the skill now. But, introducing them to the idea is a great way for them to have a great kindergarten year.

You can see a couple of our past Book Box Story Retells here: Room on The Broom, Dragons Love Tacos, The Watermelon Seed.

But, back to Little Blue Truck’s Christmas. If your kiddos love trucks, farm animals and lights, they’re going to love this book. The very last tree lights up. My kiddos just love it (so much so they kept turning to that page)!

I thought counting trees and a cardboard truck craft would go along with the book. We set out our toy farm animals and delivered a tree to each animal while I read the book to them. I hope you enjoy doing the craft too!