Have you paused recently to make sure your child knows his or her address and phone number by heart? In this era of cell phone speed dial, a reminder on these necessary facts can be fun, thanks to these cute suggestions in Parents magazine.

The first two methods were just right for my toddler to learn the basics. While shouting out my cell phone number we clapped to the first three numbers, stomped to the second three, and clapped to the final four. Veronika thought this was a blast and was soon parroting along!

Then it was time to teach her our address. To the tune of Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone, we sang, “Where oh where does Veronika live? Where oh where does she live? At [insert address here] that is where she lives”.

Now it was Travis’s turn for some advanced learning! There’s no better way to learn a number than to dial it (remember all those old numbers you could dial from muscle memory?). So we played restaurant! He “called” my number on Veronika’s toy phone, and she was the restaurant owner proudly bringing our delivery.

Order up!

For a final challenge, I wrote the numbers of my cell phone on post-its and scrambled them. Travis got them in the right order on his first try. There’s great peace of mind knowing your kids can reach you in an emergency, so give these fun and important activities a try.