Number games

I'd like to show you some (4) number games E. likes playing any time, any place. These activities cover number recognition, counting, colour matching and fine motor skills as well up to number 10. A little bit of skip counting is also involved.

1. Counting Caterpillar

As we are great fan of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, when I found this Counting Caterpillar Busy Bag I was more than delighted. The printable is free.

I've changed the pom-poms into small coloured stones. The reason for this change was I found the pom-poms too slippery on the laminated sheets.

So what I did:

• I printed the caterpillars from the site above

First, she put the cards in order from 1 to 10

• I laminated the cards
• I prepared the colourful stones in a little bowl 

Then she started to put the little stones on the body of the caterpillars. She paid close attention to the right colours. Pinching up the little stones really helps the hand muscles to strengthen

She was saying the numbers out loud while placing the counters

Sometimes she asked me to do it in turns.

I'll put on the last one.

2. Apple counting

This activity is a part of the fruit unit among the various great free printables from Welcome to Mommyhood. (You can find the printables at the bottom of the blog post and the apple tree activity is on page 12. This printable is also free of charge)

3. Ice-cream counting fun

With the summertime here we just couldn't avoid some ice-cream activities this summer either.

The FREE printable of this Ice-cream counting activity can be found on one of my favourite educational resource pages: The Measured Mom.

Just go to the page above and print the ice-cream and number cards (laminate them for durability - optional) and the counting can begin.

Counting the candies on the ice-cream

placing the right number on the cone

You can finish this activity with licking some ice-cream.

4. Count the coloured sticks


Colours have always been E.'s favourite. So we started matching colours quite early, when she was 13-14 months old. This activity involves colour sorting and counting as well. A year ago I made these coloured paper rolls for sorting colourful objects.

First, I put number 1, 2, 3 and 4 in front of each paper rolls and E. needed to put the exact number of coloured sticks in the right place. Then came the idea of skip counting:

If you liked these games, check out my earlier posts about numbers:

•  Bottle top calculator

• Watermelon seeds counting, number memory game, building a wall of numbers

If you still want some more, have a look at my 123-number games collection on pinterest.

Flower experiment

As a part of our flower project in the spring we also dealt with a little science. More precisely, how flowers absorb water through their stems reaching the petals. This colour changing carnation experiment gave me the idea, but there was some glitch in the matrix and we needed to do it twice. Still, the result was far from perfect and I can only hope E. got the point. Let's see.

The flower experiment idea is great, however, we did something wrong or were just unlucky this time.

First of all, what you need to the project:

• 4-5 white flowers of any kind (chrysanthemum didn't work very well, carnations were better)
• food colouring (4-5 colours, or you can mix them)
• transparent glasses or viols
• water
• measuring cup
• spoon
• towel for spills
• scissors

How to do it:

• prepare everything on a tray for you child and she/he can do all the activities
• add water to the glasses/viols

• add the food colouring and mix them with a spoon

• cut the stem of the flowers (10-15 cms long)

• make the flowers stand in the glasses/vases

• wait... minimum 1 or 2 days

In case of the carnations the colouring of the petals could have be seen the next day,

but in the first trial the chrysanthemum took 3 and a half days to show any signs of pigmentation.

While E was preparing (pouring water, cutting stems, mixing colours) the experiment I asked her what she thinks will happen. She didn't have a clue.

- I don't know Mommy, You say.

Then I explained what the coloured water will do:

- The stem will suck up the water, like you suck it up through a straw. (Then she imitated sucking :) )

- The coloured water will be absorbed. (she was digesting the new word)
- The water will reach the petals and they will turn red (I pointed at the flower standing in red water), green (I pointed at the flower standing in green water), blue (I pointed at the flower standing in blue water) and yellow (I pointed at the flower standing in yellow water).

In the first round after a week the chrysanthemums started to wilt so we could not observe any more colours on the petals.

In the second round of the experiment, while I was cleaning, I put the carnations on the floor light-mindedly.Then E. accidentally kicked them over. So after 5 days our second flower experiment was over.  Anyways, we could see the pigmentation of the petals somehow.

She enjoyed preparing the experiment more than the result. Who could blame her after all...

Let me know if you try this experiment and have better results, let's say, after 10-12 days.

August 20th - another Hungarian national holiday

As we have just returned from our holiday from the mountains, I haven't had time to prepare something special for today. 20 August is the 2nd biggest national holiday in Hungary. (I've already collected some activities for the first most important one i.e. 15th March).

We also call 20 August Saint Stephen's Day or the commemoration of the Foundation of Hungary as a state or "the day of the new bread". If you're interested in the background of this Hungarian holiday, please check the links.

So quickly I put together some fun crafts connected to our modest celebration after having unpacked our suitcases and started the washing machine.

On the way home sitting in the car, E. could see the Hungarian flag everywhere. She got quite excited  and pointed at all of them shouting: Hungary... so we made this flag out of crepe paper (red, white and green) and a piece of wooden skewer. You need some glue and that's all.

What you need are in the pic:

• crepe paper strips (red, white, green or the colours of your country's flag)
• skrewers
• glue

Place one piece of crepe paper under the skewer and add some glue

Then roll the crepe paper on the skewer

Repeat it with the other colours one below the other. Let it dry for a few minutes

Éljen a magyar föld! - shouted E. swaying the flags

The easier the craft is the more fun you'll have afterwards.


As we celebrate 20 August with massive fireworks over the River Danube at night, I thought we could create our own fireworks at home. We are not going to watch it in person as it is always extremely crowded and the weather has rather been capricious lately.

I've taken some ideas from 4th July celebrations. Check out the pinterest board on the topic.
This exact fireworks straw paint is more than fun to make.

On the link above you can find the detailed description, but here it is in short:

• stretch and bend 7 straws and cello-tape them together (I made 2 sets)
• prepare red and green paint in  two plates
• provide a white sheet

The painting can start. Your child needs to dip the straws into the paint and make prints with both colours.

Even Daddy had fun :)

Our own fireworks at home

Did you celebrate 20 August somehow? Let me know what you did together with your little one in the comments.

Flower crafts

This post should have appeared in May the latest when we finished our flower projects. Well, there are tons of flowers around us during the summer time so it's never too late to have a closer look at them.

Now I'd like to share  2 of our flower activities with you (later, in another post I'll write about some science experiment involving flowers)

1. Bottle cap flowers 

I've been collecting bottle tops for a long time and I've only had one or two good ways to use them, like the bottle cap calculator or the colour matching and size sorting activities.

What you need:

• bottle caps of different colours
• green straws
• glue
• cardboard
• scissors (optional - not in the picture)

How to make it:

Show and explain your child the different (basic) parts of a flower. E. had already known these parts so E. named them as I put together a flower.

we didn't go under the ground so no roots

Then we both started to work on our flowers. We were talking about what colour petals we chose or if our stem was long or short, if the flower had leaves or not.

E. used the scissors herself to cut the stems.

E.'s pic

Although not in our pictures, we also mentioned that a seed (Can you see in E.' picture the tiny seed on the ground on the left side? It was totally her idea) should go to the ground and with the help of water and sunshine it grows into a flower (hence the watering can on E.'s picture and the sun in mine)

Mommy's pic

This is just the first step on parts of a flower. We'll expand the topic later on. I'm planning to prepare some flashcards and worksheets on more detailed explanation on flower parts.

2. Paper plate flower - a goodbye present

E. has said goodbye to her créche teachers and started kindergarten in July. We prepared these paper plate flowers as part of her goodbye presents. (You can find the original idea through the link)

What you need:

• paper plates (we used 3 for 3 flowers)
• crepe paper of different colours
• Popsicle sticks 
• green paint
• glue 
• cello-tape (optional)
• markers

How to make it:

Cut out flower petal shapes of the plates. First, I drew the lines on the paper plate then I started cutting.

As I know E. has no patience to do long tasks I decided to direct her attention on coloured letters written on the paper plate. The letters showed her where to stick which colour. Her focus was much better in this way.

I also wrote Thank you! in the middle and letters of her name she could trace.

I cut up the colourful crepe paper into small pieces beforehand. We ran out of them on the way so she wanted to cut more crepe paper herself. 

Cutting practice

This was a great way to relax a little bit as there's lengthy gluing involved.

Pinching the crepe pieces

just a dab of glue

A goodbye flower for Bea néni

Finally, we painted the popsicle sticks and glued them on the back of the flowers. (I fixed them with cello-tape just to be on the safe side.)

We did this projects in two goes as it was tiring and long-winding.
E. was still enthusiastic, even at the second round.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of all the three flowers so here is what we made for Ms K.

Needless to say, they were all over the moon when they received their presents.

Have you done some flower crafts or projects lately? Do not hesitate to share it in the comments below.

To be continued.... with a flower science experiment. Stay tuned!