Children love to count.
They count everything from the steps they take to get from their bedroom to the kitchen, to how many friends are in school each day.
Counting helps them make sense of the world and to find out how many of something.
With time and practice, children develop an understanding of the “rules” or principles of counting.
One such principle is known as one-to-one correspondence.
It’s the idea that numbers correspond to specific quantities.
For example, in playing a game, a child counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 dots on the die and jumps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 spaces on the board because 5 dots correspond in quantity to 5 jumps.
The number “five” always corresponds to that precise quantity, no matter what it is you are counting.
Practise counting 1:1 with your children at home.