The counter that moves

💡 How it plays and why it helps

Board games teach children to move a token long before they can add. The counter that moves turns that habit into a Pre-K game. A strip of numbered boxes, 1 to 6 or 1 to 7, has a counter on box 3 or 4, and the story says how far it moves: two boxes, sometimes three. The instruction is read aloud, and your child taps the box where the counter lands, among four numbers. Five moves make a round. Each answer is checked and explained: it starts on 4, moves 2 boxes and lands on 6.

Addition lives here before the plus sign. Starting on 4 and moving 2 is the same as 4 and 2 more, and the landing box shows the total. The hint states the rule that makes it work. The starting box does not count.

Some taps land on 2, the size of the move, because it is the number in the sentence. The strip has a 2 too, far behind the counter. Put a finger on the counter and ask, "Which way does it go, and how far?" Praise the hops, not the score: "You moved from where the counter was."