Baby Play: Simple Counting Play and Song

This entry is part 10 of 33 in the series Baby Days

baby play - simple counting song and play

I haven’t been able to write a baby post in a while because I haven’t had a little one in my arms in far too long (hint, hint to my husband!).  But over the holidays I had the privilege of holding and playing with a couple of our youngest family members.  Thus, I got to take out some of my old favorite baby distraction games!  One of my absolute favorites is a simple finger play game that I made up with our oldest and use on every baby I can find.  It works almost every single time to delight and distract them.  And as our youngest has had her sudden (and shocking) vocabulary explosion, she is starting to learn to count.  This old standby game has really helped us to have fun while she learns to count to 5.

So I thought I would share it with you.  It is SO easy to learn and does not take a great singer to make it fun.

Basically, you just do an arpeggio with your fingers while counting to five.  I am not sure what chord I would be doing this on, but an arpeggio is the term for a broken chord.  It is where you take each of the parts of a chord and instead of singing them in unison, you sing them in succession.  I remember these from my days in band.

Then once we do the arpeggio, we sing a basic song I made up:

“I’ve got 5 fingers on 1 hand. 5 fingers on 1 hand.

Mama’s got 5 fingers on 1 hand. 5 fingers on 1 hand.

Baby’s got five fingers on 1 hand. 5 fingers on 1 hand.”

 

It could not be more simple, but my girls just LOVE it!

Still don’t get what I am talking about? Here’s a quick video of the song we do together.  You can hear my oldest singing and playing along with most of it and in the background you can hear my youngest working on getting it.  She was feeling a little camera shy at the time, so big sis jumped in.  It is a one take shot because she wasn’t that game for long – she doesn’t like being on camera, but loves watching the videos afterwards!

Do you have other hand/finger games you play with your kids?  We also love to sing “Where is Thumbkin?”  and play “Here is the church, Here is the steeple.”

Simple Counting Song and Play for babies and toddlers


Series Navigation<< Getting Ready for Baby: Early Feeding EssentialsBaby’s First Valentine >>

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Ashlee

    This is so cute! I’m gonna try this with my littlest one!

    1. ussleah

      Thanks, Ashlee! It is so simple and FUN for the little ones!

  2. Summer

    Cute idea! I will have to try this with my littles! 🙂

  3. Kathleen

    I have a little 2 year old grand daughter who is learning to count. I should try this with her. Thanks for linking up to Tips and Tricks.

Leave a Reply to Summer Cancel reply