Teaching your child to count can be difficult, but some simple objects can make it an enjoyable task. Collect household objects such as pencils and buttons. Put the objects in piles on the floor and count them together. Play the card game "Go Fish" with your child. It does not teach counting, but does help children learn numbers. Unplug your telephone and have your child "dial" a number that you give him. Use another unplugged phone to have a fake phone conversation with him. Repeat with a different number.
Learning the alphabet at home can put your child at an advantage when it comes time to go to school. Teach your child the alphabet by making an alphabet book together. Get a blank notebook and have your child write a letter of the alphabet on each page in big and colorful script. Work on one page at a time. Help your child go through magazine and cut out words or pictures that begin with the letter at hand. Glue them on the page. Make alphabet cookies with your child. Have her name a word that starts with the corresponding letter before she eats a cookie.
Elementary lessons in numbers will prepare your students for future math classes. Teach your the basics of numbers by having students count the number of days school has been on at the beginning of class each day. Start on the first day of school with having everyone say "one" together. Add a new number each day. Play a counting version of "I Spy." Have one student come to the front of the room and say "I spy with my little eye a group of [insert number] things." Have students look around the classroom and take turns guessing.
The Internet offers worksheets to help you teach the alphabet to your students. Download letter tracing pages from the Internet (see Resources 2). Have students trace the letters at their desks. Hang the sheets on a bulletin board when the students are finished. Have a letter of the day and assign one student to bring in an object from home that begins with that letter. You might want to skip over X.