When Strawberry was more consistent at getting to the number 10 when counting on her own, and yet numbers even higher than that seem incomprehensible to her, we decided to grasp the concept of 100, a high number, by making a paper clip counting 100 train together.

In the simple train book Crossing by Philip Booth, the gates go down at a small town railroad crossing in the earlier part of the century. Kids jump and cheer as it passes. They peek at each other underneath the cars and name the brands they see on the train cars. They count the cars (although not every number is shown in the book), and at the last car they yell “caboose!” I love the rhythmic rhyme in Crossing, and I also love that the illustrations are so rich. One two-page spread even shows the entire 100-car train! Continue reading →