Counting practice takes many different shapes and forms. In spring and summer, try counting with seeds for a seasonal twist!

In this video, you’ll see we used a flower shaped baking mold to hold seeds. We used permanent marker to write numbers on the bottom, but you could easily use stickers to replace and use again and again.

For younger children: Pick big seeds like pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Pre-count them and place in a glass or ceramic bowl. Look at the number one with your child. Say, “This says one” then pick up one seed and say, “This is one.” Place one seed next to the symbol for one. Continue until you have no seeds left! This is natural control of error, if you run out before you’ve finished your last number or have leftover seeds, you know you’ve miscounted somewhere along the line.

For older children: If older children are comfortably counting, try adding a fine motor component to the activity by using a tweezer or tongs to handle the seeds. This way, they are not only counting, they are also honing their fine motor grip!

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