For a while, Ariel and I used dry beans as “counters” for her to use at math time.  These are very easy to manipulate – small enough to easily sort into piles, etc.  The problem is, they’re also significant choking hazards for her little sister, and I was always a little nervous about the possibility of one getting dropped off the couch and Sophia finding it later.  So we’ve switched to popsicle sticks.  One handy thing about popsicle sticks is that, because they’re flat, you can easily bundle together “tens” with rubber bands.  However, their bulky nature makes them a little harder to manipulate, especially when you need to put them into piles.

Our trip to Wal-Mart for the popsicle sticks turned up a terrific solution.  We found mini popsicle sticks.  They have all the same benefits of the regular popsicle sticks, with the added advantage that they are only about half as long, so they are much easier to sort, pile, hold a handful of, etc.  Two packages of them (with one bundled into tens and the other left loose) fit into a 4-cup Ziploc container to store with our school texts, and this works for us. 🙂