For this game prepare 5-10 buttons, ornamental stones or other small things you can place in your hand.
First option of the game is "Addition". Show the child both opened hands with 2 and 3 subjects on them – buttons, for example. Ask to count buttons separately on each hand. Then put your hands together like it is a boat and shake your hands saying the rhyme about magic:
Magician,magician,
Do you like fishing?
And now to look through into your hands with one eye, look with an air of mystery and ask the child: "And how many buttons now are there?". After the answer don't give any comments, and say: "Let's check? » Open your hands and suggest counting subjects but together. When the child is successful to guess" the total of the subjects, surely express your delight! If that occurs often, that means that your child mastered addition up to 5, so you can increase the quantity of the objects.
Another option of the game is "Subtraction". Show the child buttons or stones on the right hand, and then put some buttons in the left hand – for example, four buttons. Clench both fists, shake them and say some «mystery words". And then ask the child, how many buttons are there in the left fist, and how many remained in the right one. Begin with five subjects and when you notice that the child mastered subtraction within this quantity – you can complicate a task, increasing quantity of the objects.
