For this quick counting exercise, we used number flashcards from Travis’s summer workbook. You can easily make flashcards at home though featuring a set number of things on one side and the numeral on the other.

If you make your own, I recommend following the lead of the workbook we’re using, which presented novel ways to count things: two fingers, for example; five pips on a dice; or six marks on a playing card.

I gave Travis all of the cards in a big pile and a bowl of clothespins. I thought he might consider the activity somewhat tiresome, but he loved the idea of clipping the pins to each card!

After counting and telling me what the number on the front was, he checked his answer against the numeral on the back.

Then it was time to reach into the bowl of clothespins!

He very carefully added and counted as he went, including for the highest numbers. “Can seven even fit?” he wondered while working on that card, and was thrilled when the answer was yes. Our card with 10 was a tight squeeze.

This requires so many clothespins that sometimes we had to steal from finished cards to complete new ones. When there was only 1 clothespin left in the bowl, I challenged Travis to single out the card representing #1. Bingo!

Overall, this is simple but good review for counting, and it gets those fine motor skills working, too.