Children love to sort items – to put them into categories. You can sort with many different items, but here are some ideas for mittens and gloves, as our podcast theme is mittens. Get out lots of gloves and mittens, with different sizes, colors, patterns and fabrics.

• A first activity I would suggest would be to “rummage” through, and just pick one and talk about it. You might choose a tiny one that your child had as a baby; or choose a big glove and discuss who it might fit etc. Ask your child to choose one and then talk about it together. Your conversations will encourage your child to look critically at the gloves and mittens, be able to recognize different attributes such as color, material or pattern, which are all excellent beginning math skills.
• Sort out into two piles – mittens and gloves.
• Match up pairs.
• Sort into big and small. Those that are medium-ish will encourage discussion. Ask how will we decide? Your child might say if it’s bigger than “this” particular one, then it’s big; if it’s smaller, then it goes in the small pile. She might suggest a third pile for medium sized mittens and gloves. All are good ideas.
• Select a few mittens and sort in a line according to size.

Use words such as big, bigger, biggest; small smaller, smallest; phrases like let’s compare; how can we tell which one is bigger; let’s measure etc. You and your child will come up with your own ideas for sorting and matching. If you like, you could share them with me.

Enjoy!