Today in Nursery we are looking at different quantities and helping the children explore them. We do this by letting the children put amounts of objects in bowls and encourage the children to use language such  as 'More, Less, Big, Small,' etc. A great way to motivate your child's interest in this activity is to give them  a bowl and you have a bowl. Then place a pile of objects such  as buttons, Lego bricks, pegs, toy cars etc, in the middle of the table. The ask your child to take one.  Then you take the rest and put them in your bowl and watch their little face as you tell them that you both have the same. They will very quickly let you know that what you have done is not right but they may struggle to use the words 'More, Less, Big Small. This is where you come in and give them the words they need

"Oh, I have more, that's not fair is. Let's do it again and see who has more" 

Repeat the activity, but each time make it obvious who has more or less, you can even let teddy join in so he can have more or less as well. 

Here are some development steps for you to use as a rough guide depending on your child's age in months:

22-36 months- Uses some language of quantities such as 'more' or 'a lot'

30-50 months- Can compare two groups of objects and say when they have the same

40-60 months Uses the language of 'more' and 'fewer' to compare two sets'