Toys for three-year-olds: numbers they can hold, letters they can trace

Three is when questions start arriving faster than you can answer them: how many, which is bigger, what does that letter say. The toys that work now make abstract things physical: a number you can hold, a fraction you can fit back together, a letter you can trace with a finger. Here is what we've watched three-year-olds use in the kindergartens we've supplied since 1989, and how it became Year Three of Chapters.

What Three-Year-Olds Are Learning

Number sense (one ring, ten rings, what 'more' actually means), early fractions (a whole that comes apart and goes back together), the strokes before writing (lines, curves and loops, long before a pencil), and letters as shapes and sounds. They are also building the patience to finish a thing with more pieces than last year.

Five Toys We Recommend

1. An abacus. The oldest maths tool there is. Slide, count, add. It stays useful well into school.
2. Stacking rings that count. One peg with one ring, up to ten. Quantity becomes something they can see and feel.
3. Fraction cups. A whole, halves, thirds, quarters that nest back into the circle. Children understand fractions years before they can name them.
4. A tracing board. Grooved capital letters to follow with a finger, the way they'll later write them.
5. A pre-writing board. Zigzags, waves and loops to trace. These strokes are the parts every letter is made of.

What to Avoid at This Age

• Flashcards and apps that drill letters. At three, letters should be shapes they touch, not tests.
• Anything that does the counting for them. A toy that calls out the number takes the job away from the child.
• Twenty toys at once. A low shelf with five, rotated every few weeks, gets used.

Year Three, Chapter 1: The Counter

Year Three · Chapter 1: The Counter is this list, made in our own factory from solid wood, with a printed play guide that says what each toy teaches and three ways to play with it:

• Counting Abacus: slide, count, add.
• 1–10 Stacking Rings: one ring on the first peg, ten on the last. Numbers they can see and feel.
• Natural Fraction Cups, Circle: a whole, halves, thirds and quarters that fit back together.
• Natural Fraction Cups, Square: the same idea in squares, to compare with the circles.

Bought on its own, the box is $99 every 3 months on subscription (Chapter 2, The Letter Finder, follows automatically and you can cancel from your account at any time), or $109 as a single box, delivered anywhere in Australia. In a Chapters membership, this box comes with a solid-wood table and chair at your child's height, which are yours to keep, and the next chapter follows every 3 months. Membership is $149 every 3 months or $499 for a year upfront. We send the next chair and table legs free as they grow, and members get 15% off everything in the shop. Tell us their birthday and we'll show you where to start.

Made by Edu Fun in our own factory since 1989. Packed and sent from Pakenham, Victoria.