Counting activities for toddlers
Counting activities for toddlers.
The ultimate guide to teaching your toddler numbers (with FREE printables)
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Your toddler is learning so much everyday, from new words, to new objects and even new feelings and experiences. These counting activities for toddlers are here to help guide some of that learning.
Around this time is when it’s ideal to start teaching them to count.
This post is full of counting activities for your toddler. It's is a guide to help you from teaching counting to recognising numbers and applying the counting.
At first. it’s difficult for a toddler to understand numbers although they will be able to repeat them after you and eventually memorise them.
1. Children can begin learning numbers as young as 18 months/2 years (this obviously varies depending on the child). So start simple by doing a countdown (is it still a countdown if you’re counting up?) to 3.
Incorporate it into a game or when you’re beginning something new to get your toddler excited. This also encourages them to join in with you.
So for example: “Let’s race our cars and see who finishes first. Wait til I say Go. 1, 2, 3 GO!”
Play a few times and encourage your child to join in with the counting. After a few goes let them take over the counting.
Or “Let’s play catch, are you ready to catch the ball? 1, 2, 3 catch”
2. Once they are familiar with numbers you can incorporate counting into your day.
Remember at this age so much learning is happening throughout the day, there’s no need to take time out of the day to “learn”.
At this point your child needs to learn the correlation between numbers and counting.
This is when you count things together.
How many books shall we read? Count them together.
Also things like: How many blueberries would you like to eat? You could count them together or even let your toddler go it alone.
Can I have 3 colours please? Count them together.
You can also incorporate counting into games when playing. “Let’s see who can tidy the most toys. I have 4, how many do you have?” “Who has more?”
Keep counting simple
3. Simple things like counting on your fingers to show your age or how many carrot sticks you ate have a bigger impact than you may think!
Incorporate it into your day by just counting at regular opportunities. (I say "regular" and not "every" opportunity because you don’t want to overdo it.) Don’t make every play time or every task longer by asking your toddler to count. Sometimes it can lead to them getting completely turned off the idea of counting if it’s too regular and they feel it’s eating into their playing time.
Counting activities for toddlers don't need to be complicated. They can be simple yet effective!
Count your steps as you go up or down the stairs.
How many items are on your plate at dinner.
Or how many people are sat around the dinner table.
Ask how many cups you will need if everyone around the dinner table has a drink etc.
4. As your child gets more accustomed to counting and numbers in general, you can introduce them to the actual numbers. This is usually around the 4 year mark but can definitely be done both earlier/later. You know your child best so go when you think they’re ready. Remember slow and steady wins the race. Only a few numbers at a time is more than enough at the beginning.
So let’s say 1 - 3 to start. Show them what they look like and get them to count “how many” with each digit.
I’ve created these worksheets to use at this point. The worksheets are for numbers 1-10 but you could start with less and print more as and when needed.
You could use bingo dabbers, paints or dot stickers with the worksheets make it a little more fun.
Download your FREE number worksheets here!
5. Does your toddler join you in the kitchen while you’re cooking dinner? I feel like we’ve all been there with the pots and pans all over the floor while you try to finish cooking! Something as simple as sticking some magnetic numbers onto the fridge can be really helpful. It just familiarises your child with the numbers and it’s a great opportunity to go through them together.
6. Over time, as your child is learning more numbers and making that correlation between numbers and their value, it’s important to introduce new numbers as once they start understanding, it will start snowballing. Kids are amazing, they really are tiny sponges!
Ive created these ice cream worksheets for you to play with your child.
Ideally you could print them on card and then laminate them. When it comes to toddlers you know you how crazy they can get so something like paper ice creams probably won't last too long around them.
Printing on paper and laminating is also fine since laminating them makes them really sturdy!
If you don't have a laminator and you don't want to purchase one, I've seen a hack online which is to cover the entire thing with clear cello tape. it makes it a little more durable so will last longer.
One thing I always recommend if you are laminating is to cut first, then laminate and cut again after. This way it's completely watertight too so it will last even longer!
Download your FREE ice cream game here!
7. Playing simple board games are a great way to recognise numbers and also count the steps as they take their turn.
Even if you have a standard die which has dots rather than numbers, at this point your child is learning to move that many spaces. Meaning they are actually learning to count as they go. You’ll find they may start by doing one thing faster than the other. So either they are moving 5 spaces but only counting to 2 or vice visa. This is totally normal and this is why we play these kinds of games. To help grasp the concept.
The next time you’re on a walk with your child, work together to count how many houses (or front doors) you pass. This will help them slow down and understand to wait before counting the next number.
8. Also incorporating counting songs into your child's day can help in a fun way. So songs like “Ten in the bed”.
9. Games like this adorable frog scale are just brilliant! I actually never bought this for my kids because I never came across it while they were toddlers. (Not sure how new it is, maybe it wasn’t a thing a few years ago). But if I did see it, it’s definitely something I would have loved to purchase! And honestly the price is great too!
Need more maths worksheets for young children?
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