Here are some of our favourite counting books. We started introducing numbers to both kids from a very early age with this Elmer board book.

The size, shape & colours of the book were appealing when they were babies & as they got older imitating laughing crocodiles & dreaming lions as we counted up to 10 was all part of the fun.

When Bryn was around 2 we borrowed ‘Engines, Engines’ from the library & it was a constant bedtime read for months. A rhyming tale of 2 children exploring India with an increasing number of colourful engines.

It was such a hit we had to get our own copy. We would happily sit counting all 10 engines at the back of the book with both children. My favourite spread is ‘engine engine number 10’ which has a train full of different animals, all of which we has to name.

Another counting book we all enjoyed was Winnie the Pooh & 10 Busy Bees which was our first introduction to the “bear with very little brain”.

The little relief bees fascinated the children & the rhyming story made it fun to read aloud. Unlike the first two this counts backwards, which at first I thought would be confusing once they started learning numbers. I now understand how it’s useful to be familiar with a sequence of numbers, both forwards & backward as well as recognising patterns.

As well as books we also enjoy counting rhymes especially “1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive” which I sang to both children from the day they were born.