I have been working with my DS, just turned 4, with counting. He does well up to 10. I can put out objects and he counts them correctly 95% of the time. So lets say there are 7 items, he counts correctly. I then ask, "so how many are there?" and he just makes up a number 2,4,6 whatever. When does it click to them that the number they ended with is the number of objects?
LOL - I remember this phase! For us, it just took repetition. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 How many are there? 6. No, son, you just counted 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 so there are ...7 seven. You counted to seven and there are 7. Then the next one, same way. It probably took a week, but I just always corrected him when he said the wrong thing. Someone once told me that if you don't correct it immediately, they confuse themselves a bit and do it wrong for much longer before it clicks. I actually heard that about spelling, but I have applied it to most everything! LOL Frustrating, I know, but this too shall pass.
He is pretty young and doing very well for his age. You are doing a very good job teaching him. Give him some time, he is right on track and it will click. You might get colorful index cards and write the numbers on the cards so he can also visualize for example, the #7 and how many 7 represents. Keep up the good work!
Thanks everyone. I figure it will click one day, so we will just keep repeating. Also thanks for the ideas.
Try using something he likes to snack on--- we used goldfish, M&Ms, teddy grahams, etc. If they got the number correct, they got to eat what they'd counted. Talk about incentive!
One thing I find consistently true is that we do something, repeat it, Harry seems not to get it, I forget about it for a week or more and then, out of the blue he's doing it perfectly. It's like bread. You mix the ingrediants, knead it for awhile but then sit back and have faith tht it will rise. And it always does.
My daughter will be 5 in October and can count to 15 and then she starts skipping around with her numbers. We set out toys and I ask her to count how many. She will count and point to each toy but sometimes she will say two numbers before she points to the next one. So I'm sorta where you are. I guess, repeatition will eventually correct that. We have some really neat counting books that I found at various thrift stores that we will be using to help. She really likes that sort of thing.
yep that is what I was going to say use snack, something they really like when they count right they eat them. But, remember he is young and he will get soon. Every child is differnet. thank God for that.
My dd is 4. We count all the time, everything. I also have a counting wall chart. We sit and count with the chart. She can even count by 10's. The repetition helps. We count cereal, cars, pictures in books (how many birds, trees, fish, etc). I will say, how many... and she will count. She counts to 100 and can recognize all the numbers.
:lol: I used this with the girls. It also works great for teaching colors. I have also found some great math story books at the library. I read they count.
I was just reading these again, and I forgot, when my ds was that age, he didn't want to do any school!!! Boys are really different from girls and every child is different. Don't push him, try getting him to count when he doesn't realize it Don't worry about it, he will get it eventially.
