Parking Cars

I am working on number identification with my son and he really is not terribly interested. I do "school time" with him, which varies from crafts to working on letters and numbers, and really just about anything I decide to do with structure (It is something I have to force myself to do, being structured). I try to make efforts to have it be fun for him (he is only 4 after all...) and to include things he really likes to help him to care more. One of the main things he really cares about is cars. The child has been obsessed with cars since he was 17 or 18 months and his love has only grown. So today I told him to load up his dump truck with cars of varying colors and to meet me in the living room for school time. He was intrigued.

I showed him the "parking lot" with spots for 14 cars and told him he would be practicing parking his cars, but that they had to match the cards.

I set out the number line for him to use if he needed help identifying the number, then had him pick a card. He could then see how many cars he was to park, as well as what colors the cars needed to be. It was up to him as to how many cars of each color to use. It ended up being a lesson in addition as well with things like, "how many orange cars did you choose?...4... How many blue cars?...3...So 4 plus 3 equals...?" It was easy to set up, educational, and he really enjoyed it. Plus, it was something that once he got the hang of it he really didn't need me to be very involved other than to affirm that what he did was correct. Definitely a keeper for us!