The story in three lines. Tí's coat has lost a button. Pairo the parrot lays one button by each hole and finds a hole with no partner. Clutch the hen counts four holes, and when Wriggle asks for just one more, Tí finds it himself: three and one more make four.

The five nights. Read it once and let your child listen. On the second night, pause before the last word of each refrain line. On the third, stop at the guess page and let them guess how many buttons. On the fourth, do the "now you" with real cups and spoons. On the fifth, let them tell it to a toy.

One thing to do at the table. Put out four cups and three spoons. Ask: "Is there a spoon for every cup?" Let your child match them up before anyone counts. Then count both rows together, touching each one once.

The grown-up layer. Before children can count reliably, they can tell whether two groups match by pairing them up. That is one-to-one correspondence, and it is the idea underneath counting. The last number said is how many, which young children often have to discover. PairTots and TallyTots play with the same two ideas. Keep needles and pins in the grown-up's hands.