Skill shelf · counting, shapes, patterns and working it out · 15 activities
Numbers, Shapes and Thinking
Everything where a child has to work something out: which hole it fits, what order it goes in, how many there are, and what ten of them make.
This shelf starts long before counting does. A two year old turning a peg until it drops into its hole is doing geometry with her wrist, and she will do it forty times. Shapes, matching and sequence run from two upwards. Number arrives later, around five, and when it does it arrives as objects: one bean, a bundle of ten, a bag of a hundred, a box of a thousand, all the same bean.
Nothing here is a worksheet. Place value is half a kilo of beans and a walk to the bank at the other end of the table. A plan of a maze is real tape on a real floor, drawn onto squared paper and then walked. Geometry is a tin standing in a torch beam, throwing a circle one way round and a rectangle the other. The argument is always in the hand first and on paper afterwards, if it gets to paper at all.
Pick by the thing your child already does without being asked. If she lines things up, start with patterns and sequencing. If he fits things into things, start with shapes and space. If counting has started turning up in conversation, counting and quantity is where it goes next. Choosing one step below where you think she is costs nothing, and our difficulty ladder is about how to tell.
The fifteen
Ordered by the age each one suits best. Every line gives the setup time, the play time and whether anything has to be bought.
- Peg and Hole Matching Your child picks up a fat peg, lines it up over a hole that just fits it, and pushes it home. none once made · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Posting and Slotting Your child pushes a plastic lid through a slot cut in a tub, hears it land, and then takes the tub lid off and finds it again. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Pattern Card Bead Lacing Your child looks at a row of beads drawn on a card and threads the same order onto a lace, one bead at a time. 2 min · 10 to 20 min · beads, a lace, a drawn card
- Egg Carton Counting Grid Your child reads the number written in the bottom of an egg carton cup and drops in exactly that many beans, one at a time, twelve cups in a row. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Shape Shadow Match Your child stands a solid shape in a beam of light and works out which of the outlines traced on the paper its shadow belongs to. 2 min · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Story Sequence Cards Your child puts four or five cards into the order the thing actually happened, and then tells you the story they make. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Weighted Pod Sorting Your child picks up two pots that look exactly alike, decides which one is heavier, and keeps going until all ten are in pairs. 15 min, once · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Clock Face and Hands Match Your child sets the hands on a paper clock to match a card, and the card says what happens at that time in his own day. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Continent Map Puzzle Your child lifts each continent out of a wooden map by its knob and puts it back where it came from. 1 min · 10 to 20 min · has to be bought
- Paper Folding Precision Challenge Your child folds a square of paper corner to corner, presses the crease with a thumbnail, and finds out four folds later whether the first one was straight. no setup · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Place Value Bead Bank Game Your child is sent to the bank for a number, comes back with loose beans, bundles of ten and bags of a hundred, and trades ten of anything for one of the next size up. 2 min · 20 min or more · household, or a bought set
- Bead Chain Addition Snake Your child lays a line of bead bars, counts off the first ten beads, swaps them for a single ten-bar, and keeps going until the snake is nothing but tens. 2 min · 20 min or more · household, or a bought set
- Maze Blueprint Mapping Your child tapes a maze onto the floor and then draws it on paper as a plan, or draws the plan first and builds to it. 2 min · 20 min or more · household only
- Plant Care and Growth Measuring Your child grows a bean from a dried one in the cupboard, waters it on a schedule that is hers, and cuts a paper strip to its height every morning. 2 min · 5 min a day, for weeks · household only
- Cardboard Loom Yarn Weaving Your child weaves a small square of cloth on a loom cut from a cereal box, over four or five sittings, and it takes as long as it takes. 15 min, once · 20 min or more · household only
Where something has to be bought, the line says so and so does the top of its own page. The rest of this shelf is beans, card, tape and a torch.