Ladybug Number Count

Ladybug Number Count was developed by parents and their children along with some guidance from early childhood educators. Ladybugs are placed in images of the real world for kids to count. A wonderful meshing of animation with photography.

There are two ways to play the app. Choose to count the ladybugs by tapping one at a time or count by themselves and touch the correct number from a choice of three. The app has a very relaxed and slow moving pace. Kids also hear language like, more and less each time they get an answer wrong.

You won’t find an endless amount of scenes, so be prepared to see the backgrounds repeat frequently. Reminder: repetition and practice are needed to learn numbers and their order.

There are three languages to choose from: English, French and Spanish. Switching between them is an excellent way to introduce children to new languages!

We appreciate that for $.99 you get an outstanding counting app with no in-app purchases.

Activity 1: What Did I Do?

What You’ll Need:
• Pennies (or a collection of small objects)

Hold up pennies in your hand and ask, “How many are there?” Then, “Close your eyes so I can make a change. Did I add or take away some pennies?” Repeat using the same dialog.

The first time you may be amazed at how much effort it is for your child to figure this out. Two ways you can help:

1) Give your child time to think
2) Have your child re-enact what you did, comparing and counting.

Let’s say you started with 3 and while your child closes his eyes you add 1 to make 4.

“How many did I have in my hand before? Take 3 clips and put them in your hand and hold your next to mine. Do you think I added clips or took away clips?”

This is a great game to play while waiting for food in a restaurant. All you need to do is pull out some pennies and you will liven up a boring time. This can also make a road trip more fun for everyone, assuming you are not the driver.

Activity 2: Fantasy Stories

We spend a lot of time in the car as a family and I wanted to share another “car” favorite. There is great power of number stories, making them fantastical adds more fun to the thinking. Try one (or a few) of these fantasy number stories about the zoo:

• Your Uncle Steve went to the zoo and saw 6 elephants and 3 monkeys. How many animals did he see?

• Someone accidentally left the monkey cage open and one of them escaped. How many were still in the cage?

• Your uncle went after the runaway monkey and he ran directly into a clown selling peanuts. Monkeys love peanuts you know. 5 bags of peanuts fell on the ground. When the monkey realized what had happened it came running to get the peanuts. Before anyone could stop the monkey she grabbed 2 bags and ran off again. How many bags were left on the ground?

If you are a passenger, help you child draw each wacky problem to make them more visual.