Teaching Quantity

My children were very good a counting from a young age.  They could rote count very well.  I made up an activity to teach them quantity using foam shapes and clothes pins.  This worked well because it was something they could do on their own at anytime by themselves.  For my daughter I made flowers and for my son I made yellow school buses.  I cut out the shapes out of foam pieces and then drew numbers from 1 -10 on them.  The first time I did the activity I did it with my children.  I would ask them questions along the way like, "How many clothes pins do we need for the number 2?,"  or "We have 4 clothes pins on the bus we need to have 5.  How many more clothes pins do we need to clip to our flower?"  This is a great activity that will help your children in both math by figuring out how many pins they have and how many more they need to get the right amount, and it's a great fine motor activity as well.  They'll have to hold shape in one hand and use the other hand to open the clothes pin and place it on the shape.  Before you know it your child will understand how much 5 is, and they will have fun with putting the clothes pins on the shape.