Musical Counting is Fun!

Leji removes and repositions most of the stickers from her counting blocks

I'm grateful my daughter learned how to count up to 20 in English and up to 10 in Mandarin at 18months. We also try counting in Filipino and Spanish but she finds the long words too challenging to pronounce up to now.

Eg. 1= one (1syllable), yi (1 syllable) vs. isa (2 syllables), uno (2syllables);  2= two (1syllable), er (1 syllable) vs. dalawa (3syllables).

I trust she'll get the hang of it eventually; we speak in the vernacular at home anyway. No pressure.

We count everything whenever wherever as long as she feels like it: stair steps, birds, crayons, paper, flower petals, storybook characters, pirate coins on Disney Junior and even her clothes in the laundry basket. We started doing this practice long before she could repeat words/syllables properly which was around the time she learned how to sit and pick up objects.

Apart from physically counting toys and singing the classic "Ten Little Indians" here are some toddler videos on YouTube which helped made our counting sessions more interesting:

1. Sesame Street: Feist sings 1, 2, 3, 4

I didn't know who Leslie Feist was until I saw this (she sounds similar to Colbie Caillat to me).  My daughter thinks she's as cool as Beyonce and Barbie.  There is another Sesame Street pop music video about numbers featuring the a capella group Pentatonix but this really is her favorite with all the chickens and penguins prancing about.

2. Badanamu: Party on the Ocean Floor

Mother-of-3 and personality development coach Karen Agustin-Ostrea got us hooked on Badanamu when we complained that we were tired of watching The Mother Goose Club on Netflix. This lively song is one of Leji's favorites while we eat merienda in the afternoon.  It's amusing to watch her do the dance moves.

3. Fun, Fun Elmo: A Mandarin Chinese Learning Program

The only Mandarin words that my brain managed to retain are the stuff I learned in preschool. Some experts claim that exposing babies to multiple languages activates larger areas of their brain, making more room for knowledge acquisition (for math and science) later on in life. So now I try to expose Leji to as much fun Chinese as possible. With constant repetition & hand signs, I think Elmo's a pretty cool friend :)

4. Little Baby Bum: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

No amount of warning could discourage Leji from jumping and acting like a little monkey before bedtime but at least this helped her learn how to count.

5. Ten in the Bed: ABC KidTV

There are many versions of this song featuring various animals, crayon colors, and stuffed toys.  "The little one" is quite cruel to his bedmates but it's a funny alternative to singing "Ten Little Indians" in reverse.