Following up on my last blog post about counting on the swings, I wanted to share some more videos of me and Katherine counting with our son, Asa.

What’s the goal in this?  To let counting and numbers be fun, empowering, and a way to deepen the anticipation of the game, without ever being pedantic or sucking the fun out of the experience.

Basically, take any time you would naturally count to three. As in: “we’ll on go on three. One, two, three, go!” Except, just for fun, you go to a different number instead. Or maybe you count down, or count by twos – whatever works for you and your kid. Going just a little further is a chance to introduce some more numbers, and also heighten the anticipation!

Note in all of these that kids might miscount, not be where you thought they were, or go off on other tangents altogether.

So here are some videos of Asa counting before doing a “layup” with his mom (a favorite game of his). He gets so carried away in the first couple of videos that she reins in the energy a tiny amount. Some things to notice: he really likes counting to eight for some reason. And he’s having a blast, to the point of distraction.

And here’s him counting to get me to jump in the water. This has always been something he likes to do, but here we nudge him to slightly higher numbers.

I’m still hoping to get more videos made to fill out a library of activities at earlyfamilymath.org! Try making your own and let us all know about them!