Learning to count is something that most children start to do by the time they are about two, and parents know from first-hand experience that family members play a big part in helping with this complex process. In this article, the author describes a project involving families sharing effective counting activities. The project called "Getting children counting," based in Leicester, has looked at activities that local parents and family members feel are important for children under five, and aimed to share good practice between families through the medium of a DVD. Many of the counting activities which the parents did with their children lasted only a few minutes, but they were often repeated over and over again over a period of months, until the child tired of them or moved on to something more ambitious. The author hopes the finished DVD will make parents and carers feel more confident about the activities they are doing, and that it will perhaps suggest new things to try, too.