we played with counting bears a lot.
He would put on little shows and the counting bears would be the audience... it was hy-lar-e-ious!
but using them he learned about groups and patterns. The audience has assign seating, I would put a blue then a red then a blue and ask him, "Who comes next?" once he got that, we got more complicated.
When he was four we started adding and subtracting. Once he got that we went on to multiplication..... it was fun and he enjoyed it.
He still likes to play with them at seven.
