http://countingfingersandtoes.com/

Counting Fingers and Toes, Nashville, TN (2026)

01/08/2024

Thrilled to announce that we've received funding from Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee! Thank you for believing in our mission!

Your generous contribution will make a *difference* for early numeracy in Nashville, TN (math pun intended 🤣)

08/18/2023

The movement to promote early literacy has done a phenomenal job. There are tons of organizations that pass out books to families, and libraries have become strong community centers. Literacy is important, and we should continue striving to ensure that all children enter kindergarten with strong literacy skills.

Early numeracy is equally important. In fact, some studies show that a child’s early math proficiency is a stronger predictor of future achievement than a child’s literacy proficiency. However, there are few organizations that solely focus on numeracy.

Counting Fingers and Toes seeks to fill this gap. We’re trying to raise awareness about the importance of early math learning, and work to empower families to play an active role in their child’s math learning. Just like we give books to parents to support their child’s early literacy, parents need resources to support their child’s early numeracy.

Our goal for the 23-24 school year is to provide 1200 Early Math Play Kits to low income Nashville families. We are raising $4,000 so that we can purchase the materials for the kits. Every $15 that is donated will provide 2 families with an Early Math Play Kit.

Thank you so much to those who have already donated! Please consider donating to support early numeracy in Nashville! There are two ways to donate:
🔶page: Go to facebook.com/countingfingersandtoes and click the “Donate” button. This is the preferred donation method because Facebook does not charge us a processing fee.
🔷Through our website: Go to countingfingersandtoes.com/donations/supportnumeracy2023 and complete the form.

08/15/2023

Many of us have feelings when it comes to math, more so than any other subject. Some may finish this sentence with “beautiful”, “easy”, or “logical”, but many will finish it with “boring”, “anxiety inducing”, “hard”, or “not for me”. Which camp do you fall in?

Many of us were raised memorizing math facts, completing worksheet after worksheet, and blindly following procedures. This worked for some students, but it alienated many, leaving students to believe that they are bad at math. Unfortunately, many students still feel that way.

Counting Fingers and Toes believes that, at its core, math is beautiful, creative, and accessible to everyone. Math anxiety is common among parents and students, and we strive to break the cycle. We give parents the training and tools they need to engage in math activities with their child in fun and meaningful ways.

Our goal for the 23-24 school year is to provide 1200 Early Math Play Kits to low income Nashville families. We are raising $4,000 so that we can purchase the materials for the kits. Every $15 that is donated will provide 2 families with an Early Math Play Kit.

Thank you so much to those who have already donated! Please consider donating to support early numeracy in Nashville! There are two ways to donate:
🔶page: Go to facebook.com/countingfingersandtoes and click the “Donate” button. This is the preferred donation method because Facebook does not charge us a processing fee.
🔷Through our website: Go to countingfingersandtoes.com/donations/supportnumeracy2023 and complete the form.

08/09/2023

Research shows that engaging in math activities at home is a strong predictor of math performance in grades K-2. However, many parents are unsure of what math activities to do. In order to increase math achievement, we need to give parents the knowledge and tools they need to confidently engage in math activities at home.

Our Early Math Play Kits make it easy for parents to feel confident in helping their child learn important math skills. All of the activities are easy to play and target specific early math skills. Our goal for the 23-24 school year is to provide 1200 Early Math Play Kits to low income Nashville families. We are raising $4,000 so that we can purchase the materials for the kits. Every $15 that is donated will provide 2 families with an Early Math Play Kit.

Thank you so much to those who have already donated! Please consider donating to support early numeracy in Nashville! There are two ways to donate:
🔷page: Go to facebook.com/countingfingersandtoes and click the “Donate” button. This is the preferred donation method because Facebook does not charge us a processing fee.
🔶Through our website: Go to countingfingersandtoes.com/donations/supportnumeracy2023 and complete the form.

08/03/2023

The majority of American adults report having some level of math anxiety. This includes adults of all professions, including teachers!

Evidence of this appears all of the time in my regular conversations with friends and strangers. On an airplane recently, the person next to me confessed that they are “not a math person.” This was completely unprompted - I swear I did not say anything about math! He was especially unsure of the new way kids are learning math. I took a moment to share how I really appreciate the new approach to math because it promotes problem solving and flexible thinking over memorization and procedures.

This man is not alone. Many parents feel anxious when asked to do any sort of math, and seeing math taught in an unfamiliar way can be challenging. Regardless of how parents feel about math, I firmly believe that all parents have the power to support their child’s math learning. They simply need the guidance and resources to show them how.

There has been a wonderfully successful movement to give parents the skills to support early literacy by promoting reading aloud at home. It’s time we did the same for math!

Our Early Math Play Kits make it easy for parents to feel confident in helping their child learn important math skills. Our goal for the 23-24 school year is to provide 1200 Early Math Play Kits to Nashville families in need. We are raising $4,000 so that we can purchase the materials for the kits. Every $15 that is donated will provide 2 families with an Early Math Play Kit.

Thank you so much to those who have already donated! Please consider donating to support early numeracy in Nashville! There are two ways to donate:
🔷page: Go to facebook.com/countingfingersandtoes and click the “Donate” button. This is the preferred donation method because Facebook does not charge us a processing fee.
🔶Through our website: Go to countingfingersandtoes.com/donations/supportnumeracy2023 and complete the form.

07/31/2023

Math is more than memorization and worksheets! Our goal at Counting Fingers and Toes is to make math fun and accessible to all families. Our Early Math Play Kits make it easy for parents to support their child’s early math skills by playing games at home. All of the activities are based in research and target specific early math skills – and the best part is, children have so much fun they don’t even know they’re learning!

Our goal for the 23-24 school year is to provide 1200 Early Math Play Kits to Nashville families in need. We are raising $4,000 so that we can purchase the materials for the kits. Every $15 that is donated will provide 2 families with an Early Math Play Kit.

Thank you so much to those who have already donated! Please consider donating to support early numeracy in Nashville! There are two ways to donate:

🔷page: Go to facebook.com/countingfingersandtoes and click the “Donate” button. This is the preferred donation method because Facebook does not charge us a processing fee.
🔶Through our website: Go to countingfingersandtoes.com/donations/supportnumeracy2023 and complete the form.

07/28/2023

I'm excited to share some of the great work that Counting Fingers and Toes accomplished during the 22-23 school year! We partnered with four Metro Nashville Public Schools to distribute 950 Early Math Play Kits to Nashville families - that is 600 play kits over our goal of 350. We also led six parent events where parents learned strategies to support their child’s math learning at home.

Our goal for the 2023-2024 school year is to build on these successes. We seek to provide 1,200 Early Math Play Kits to Nashville families in need. We are raising $4,000 so that we can purchase the materials for the kits. Every $15 that is donated will provide 2 families with an Early Math Play Kit.

You can donate from our page (facebook.com/countingfingersandtoes) or through our website (countingfingersandtoes.com/donations/supportnumeracy2023). You can give with either a credit card or check.

02/03/2023

Valentine's Day treats are great for eating *and* for building early math skills! As you work your way through Valentine's Day sweets with your child, be on the lookout for opportunities to:

🔢Count items: How many pieces are there?
📶Compare attributes: Which candy is the longest? Which is the shortest?
🔷Compare quantities: Are there more pink hearts of yellow hearts?
🟣Describe shapes: Which candies have straight edges? Which have round edges?
💕Make Patterns: Which color/candy comes next?

12/15/2022

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is reading the classic stories, and nothing beats 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore. Little did Moore know, but he wrote a poem full of opportunities for math talk!

This guide outlines six places in *'Twas the Night Before Christmas* where you can incorporate math questions that will build your child's numeracy skills. Put on your coziest Christmas sweater, pour of cup of hot cocoa, and enjoy this wonderful holiday treat.

Read the full post for more details! https://countingfingersandtoes.com/2022/12/14/twas-the-night-before-christmas/

12/08/2022

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is a test that is taken by students across the United States. It is sometimes referred to as the "Nation's Report Card." The results of the 2021 assessment have recently been released. The overarching headline is that math scores fell significantly during COVID.

Martin West, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, claims that the key to closing the gap is more learning time: “I don’t see a silver bullet,” Dr. West said, “beyond finding a way to increase instructional time.”

More instructional time doesn't have to mean more worksheets. This is where we can leverage parents. If we give parents the necessary knowledge and tools, they can play a key role in helping their child catch up on learning time by engaging in fun math activities at home.

This is exactly what Counting Fingers and Toes aims to do. Our parent workshops provide parents with the confidence and knowledge they need to support their child's numeracy, and our Early Math Play Kits provide parents with the tools they need to play math activities together.

Support us this holiday season by purchasing an Early Math Play Kit! They make great holiday gifts for children ages 3-7. Each play kit that you purchase also purchases the materials for a second play kit that is given to a Nashville family in need. Check out our play kits here:https://countingfingersandtoes.com/early-math-play-kits/

Read more about the NAEP 2021 results, read our full blog post here: https://countingfingersandtoes.com/2022/12/09/closing-the-covid-math-gap-supporting-parents

12/07/2022

Give your child the gift of math confidence this holiday season by incorporating some math talk into the holiday festivities! Simply look for opportunities where you can count items, compare attributes, describe shapes, make patterns, sort objects, and compare quantities.

Check out this blog post for more on adding math to the holiday season: countingfingersandtoes.com/2020/12/22/holiday-math-talk/

Looking for other ways to add numeracy to your holiday season? Check out our Early Math Play Kits! They make great holiday gifts for children ages 3-7. Each play kit that you purchase also purchases the materials for a second play kit that is given to a Nashville family in need. Check them out here:https://countingfingersandtoes.com/early-math-play-kits/

11/29/2022

As a society, we’re doing excellent work supporting early literacy by giving families books. Let’s do the same for math this ! This holiday season, help us give families math resources to support at home. Our goal at Counting Fingers and Toes is for all families to have the knowledge and resources they need to support early math learning at home. Next spring, we are partnering with local preschools to provide 680 Early Math Play Kits to low-income Nashville families. This Giving Tuesday and holiday season, we’re aiming to raise $2,500 to purchase the materials for these kits.

How can you help?
❤️Donate directly through Facebook or our website, countingfingersandtoes.com. All donations go directly towards purchasing play kit materials.
🧩Purchase an Early Math Play Kit - they make great holiday gifts for children ages 3-7! Each play kit that you purchase also purchases the materials for a second play kit that is given to a Nashville family in need. Check out our play kits here:https://countingfingersandtoes.com/early-math-play-kits/ ..

Counting Fingers and Toes

01/08/2024

08/18/2023

08/15/2023

08/09/2023

08/03/2023

07/31/2023

07/28/2023

02/03/2023

12/15/2022

12/08/2022

12/07/2022

11/29/2022

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Organization

Shortcuts

Share

Category