Master C starts the pre-school year at the local infant school today. Today! How on earth has that happened? It’s hard to believe that it was three years ago that Little Miss C was in that same position. There are so many differences between my two kids and if I’m honest quite a few differences between they way that they’ve been brought up. After all LMC was an only child for the first two and a bit years of her life, yet Master C has always had to fight for attention against his older sister – I just wish he didn’t do that quite so literally at times!
It’s also fair to say that as LMC was the first child I had going through school I made a real effort to play loads of educational games with her before she went. I’ve not been quite so diligent with Master C though, although I’ve been doing my best to play catch up over the summer holidays!
It was therefore quite good timing for Ravensburger to send me Ready, Set, Count! from their Play & Learn range.
Ready, Set, Count! introduces the concept of depicting numbers in different ways to young children. There is a jigsaw card for each of the numbers 1 to 10 and each card comprises of 4 parts: a large pictorial image depicting the number, plus three smaller parts which show that number in numeral, dice and finger format.
What’s lovely about the game is that you can adapt it to play it in several different ways depending on exactly where your child is in terms of their maths and counting and also based on who many players you want to have. It’s possible to set it up for one child to play alone, or have a group playing.
I’d always thought that Master C’s grasp of numbers and counting was quite good, but actually Ready, Set, Count! showed up where he needed more practice. I soon realised that he hadn’t actually been exposed to dice much in the games we’d been playing and so the familiarity with how they looked wasn’t really there yet.
The game has a recommended age range of 3-6 years which I think is about right. Master C will be 4 later this month and could cope with the concept and the counting required quite well. Six year old LMC found it relatively easy and could instantly recognise the numbers shown on the dice and finger parts of the jigsaw without having to actually count them.
Ready, Set, Count! is definitely be part of a number of games and puzzles that I’ve pulled together to help Master C develop his maths and counting skills. It brings together different ways of counting and depicting numbers in the one game making it perfect for pre-schoolers and reception age children.
Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of Ready, Set, Count! for the purposes of this review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.
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