'Count how many dishes on the menu start with the same letter as your first name.' Then try last names. Then find which letter appears most across the whole menu. A counting task with the menu as the data source. Real numeracy in a context that feels like play. For non-reading children, parent reads item names aloud and the child counts.

What you need

The menu

How to do it

1"Count how many dishes on this menu start with the same letter as your first name. I'm M, so I'm looking for M-words."
2Compare counts. Then: which letter appears most across the whole menu?
3For non-readers: read dish names aloud while the child counts with their fingers.

Variations

If they don't want to count: count your own name's letter out loud, slowly, tracing down the menu with your finger — until they want to check your count or start their own.
How it ends: announce the final tally as 'and that's the winner' right as it's time to actually order, so the count closes itself into the next real decision.

💡 Parent tip

Let them use their finger to track down the menu line by line. Speed misses items. Thoroughness is the skill being practiced. Counting and reading are cognitive, verbal-adjacent tasks that need a settled child, so this is a prevention card. Mid-meltdown, reach for The Coin Architecture instead: zero setup, hands not letters.

What your child develops

Letter recognition and counting — a reading and numeracy task embedded in game format
Data collection from text — scanning a document for a specific pattern is an information literacy skill