Helping your child learn to count
The ability to count and work with numbers is a basic math skill for children when beginning school. By working with your child on some fun and engaging activities, you can help them gain important skills in this area.
Counting to 20
Counting from 1 to 20 requires rote memorization. If your child is not yet able to count from 1 to 20, you can help them gain this ability simply by counting with them at every opportunity.
To engage your child, count aloud as you or your child completes certain activities. For example, see who can put away more toys in 10 or 20 seconds, counting aloud together as you clean. Or, count how many steps it takes you to get from one room to another room or from your front door to the car, counting aloud with each step. The more your child hears the numbers being recited in the correct order, the more quickly they will learn the order for themselves.
An essential tool in a school classroom for teaching children numeral order and counting is the number line.
A number line visually reinforces the number symbols and demonstrates how numbers are ordered. One of these have been provided for you. Direct your child to look at the number line as they count aloud, so they can gain familiarity with what each number looks like and also the order of numbers from 0 to 10.
Counting on
Counting on involves being able to continue counting from any number, as opposed to restarting at 1 each time your child counts.
Counting on is an important skill when adding groups of items. For example, if you give a child six counters and then you give them two more counters, they can be more efficient by not recounting the first six counters before counting the additional two blocks. As your child begins counting increasingly large numbers of items, counting on becomes increasingly critical.
To introduce and practice the skill of counting on, give your child a group of 7 to 12 counters. Encourage them to touch each block one time as they count aloud. As soon as they finish counting, tell them to keep that number in their head. Then immediately place one or two additional counters on the table slightly separated from the original group and tell them to continue counting. If your child begins to recount the original group, remind them that they do not need to recount because that amount did not change.
Skip counting
The first skip counting children learn is how to count by 10s from 10 to 100. A 100 chart is a wonderful way to teach counting by 10s and to introduce the general idea of skip counting.
Using this chart, show your child how all of the numbers in the right-hand column go from 10 to 100, counting by 10 at a time by “skipping” the other numbers in the row before jumping to the next line. Instruct your child to use their finger to move down the column to count by 10s as he reads each number.
Once your child is comfortable counting by 10s to 100, introduce counting by 2s. Begin by saying aloud “two” and ask them to skip the next number (three) by thinking it in their head and then say aloud the following number (four). Particularly for younger children, consider mouthing the skipped number or pointing to it on a number line as you skip it, so that your child can see you are thinking the skipped number but not saying it. With time, your child will learn to say the skipped number silently in their head without mouthing it or pointing to it on a chart.
Once your child has mastered counting by 2s, you can introduce counting by 5s. Since it is not easy for children to keep track of 4 skipped numbers in their head before saying aloud the fifth number, consider using a 100s chart when counting by 5s. Circle every 5th number on the chart and direct your child to use his finger to skip from one circled number to the next until he discovers the pattern and is comfortable continuing it without the chart.
These same principles can be applied to varied number ranges, depending on the level of difficulty required.