In the new Exchange book, Curriculum: Brain Research, Math, Science, Ann Epstein observes...

"Children want to count everything. To support children's natural love of counting:

• Encourage children to gather and distribute materials at snack, clean-up, and small-group time.
• Plan group activities that involve multiple numbers of the same items such as small toys and blocks, or materials collected by children on a nature walk such as pebbles or shells.
• Make sign-up sheets that involve numbers. For example, on a sheet to take turns with a new camera, children made hatch marks after their names to indicate how many turns they wanted.

Adult-child interaction: We learn more from the questions children ask us than from the ones we ask them. Instead of drilling children, try the following:

• Listen to the kinds of things children commonly compare, such as materials ("My tower has more blocks than yours."), things in representations ("I drew more teeth in my brother's mouth because he talks louder."), and ages ("My cousin is older than us. She's seven.").
• Comment on the sets of corresponding materials that children generate. ("Jason, I see you put one bear on each block. You have five bears on five blocks.")
• Use written numbers and support children who are interested in writing numbers themselves."

Contributed by Exchange, The Early Childhood Leaders' Magazine Since 1978