How can be explained that early literacy and numeracy share variance? We specifically tested whether the correlation between four early literacy skills (rhyming, letter knowledge, emergent writing, and orthographic knowledge) and simple sums (non-symbolic and story condition) reduced after taking into account preschool attention control, short-term memory, speed of processing, visual-spatial skills, vocabulary, and shared book reading. 228 Dutch native preschoolers (mean age 54.25; SD = 2.12 months) participated. The results revealed that 1) all literacy skills were related to sums (non-symbolic and story condition), 2) rhyming was the strongest predictor of non-symbolic sums, and letter knowledge of sums in story context, 3) visual-spatial skills explained part of the shared variance in the non-symbolic condition and visualspatial skills, vocabulary and short-term memory explained part of the shared variance in sums in story context. Implications for the preschool curriculum and early interventions are discussed. (author abstract)