Counting Flowers and Petals

When I'm dreaming up activities to do with the boys, I have a tendency to over-think things.  I was looking for some more counters to use with Wugs besides the stone counters he already has.  On our way to the condo playground this afternoon, we passed a Frangipani tree.  The flowers from the tree had recently fallen to the ground and Wugs was collecting them together in his hand and pointing out the different colours to me.  Then he laid them out on the bench by the slide and started to count the petals. I thought what a lovely way to teach children to count and to understand units (ie one flower equals 5 petals) .