1 to 10 counting - educational activity for toddlers from 1 to 3 years

I was good at maths, sometimes I think this is because I was shown from early ages assembly and multiplying excercices like a game and not like a routine. So, I loved numbers and play with numbers, maths was like a game for me.

I thought that it is never too early to begin to teach my toddler numbers. First step was through a song, there are a lot of very funny videos on youtube, just choose the one your toddler likes more. Our son began to count almost at 1 year and a half, he wasn't talking too many words, but numbers he knew to count due to a song and for him it was like a game.

Next step was to sing with him the song and to get a good pronunciation of each number. It wasn't difficult till the moment when he learned numbers in the nursery. From that day he began to count in 2 different languages. To explain it better, he counted 1 to 3 in Russian and other numbers in Catalan. I was happy and not so happy, but I thought it's a challenge but I don't have to show to my toddler that it is something difficult. So, we began to sing the song with numbers every morning before nursery and late in the evening, sometimes more times as he found this song quite funny and he loves to repeat this song.

On Wednesday I had Bank Holiday and spent all day with my toddler. I thought that it is perfect moment to go to next step with numbers. Get him used with them on paper. He has never seen before all numbers and I prepared him 2 games. 

1. First activity was to put exact number of pom poms to each number. Like one pom pom for number 1, two pom poms for number 2 and so on. From 1 to 4 it was easy for him, then he just put all pom poms on a number and the game finished. Do you think I was disappointed? Not me. It was just first step of learning, that is why I left him playing with pom poms and not bother about numbers.

2. Second learning activity was writing numbers on caps and to organize the numbers in their orders. We played a little bit, less than 5 minutes and played with his toys.

Conclusions. I didn´t expected my toddler to play with numbers hours, nor to understand the game. I wanted to get him familiar with written numbers and as I ,mentioned previously I wanted him to enjoy numbers and not to hate them. I think that more we insist, more these activities bother them and they will never ever play the game with you. The idea is to play as often as toddler enjoys playing, once he gets bored it is good to change for another game.