How to teach a child to count to 100? Matchbox method

Counting is one of the basic skills that it is advisable to master before the child goes to school. No one will require a first-grader to solve complex examples - but learning to count the number of objects and knowing the basics of addition and subtraction before school will be useful. The child will not have difficulty understanding the teacher’s requests - for example, “take two pencils” - and the first grader will not feel less smart than peers who have already learned to count.

There are many ways to teach a child to count: using methods developed by professional teachers, in a playful way, using rhymes and thematic videos. Whichever method you choose, learning to count can be considered the first step to learning mathematics. A good knowledge of mathematics is the key to not only positive grades, but also excellent memory and attention, developed logical thinking, and the ability to calculate the right decision in any situation.

First acquaintance with numbers: when and where to start

You can start introducing your baby to numbers at the age of 1.5-2 years. But it is too early to expect significant mathematical success from a small child, although children quickly understand the difference between the concepts of “one” and “many” even at an early age.

Briefly about the stages of a child learning to count - in the table:

Trying to teach a child to count too early is not worth it because of the differences in children's thinking from that of adults. There is such a thing as Piagetian phenomena, proven by the French psychologist Jean Piaget.

The psychologist has proven that children under six years old cannot treat counting abstractly, considering a mathematical operation to be correct only in the present tense and precisely with those objects that an adult shows. For example, a child under six years old will be convinced that if he takes the apples to another room, or replaces the apples with pears, the number of objects will change.

The best way to teach children to count is in 4 stages:

At 2-3 years old it is enough to teach a child to understand the difference between “little” and “many”.
At 4-5 years old, it’s time to learn to count concrete, not abstract, objects within 10: candy in a vase, plates on the table, books on a shelf.
At 5-6 years old, a child can be taught to count to 10 and 20, and show how numbers look and are written. At the same age, the baby is already able to understand the terms “more and less,” adding the right amount to objects or, conversely, removing the excess to achieve equality (for example, arranging toys in equal piles).
By the age of 6-7 years, the child is ready to learn to count to 100, and add and subtract numbers up to 10.

How to teach counting to 10

You can teach your child to count to 10 before the age of five, or, if necessary, at an older age. The main conditions for successfully teaching mental counting to 10 are a child’s good vocabulary and interest in numbers.

How to teach your child to count to 10:

focus on numbers that you already use in everyday situations, for example: “You are four years old now, and will soon be five years old,” “It’s time to get up, it’s already seven o’clock”;
show images with different numbers of objects within 10: illustrations in books, cubes, your own drawings;
educational videos and cartoons on the relevant topic will help you quickly remember the sequence of counting to 10;
connect elements of mental arithmetic: teach your child to use an abacus - often children quickly master counting within 10 by practicing with abacus abacus, or even with classic wooden abacus;
use an element of the Montessori method: the famous teacher successfully taught counting to children aged 3-6 years, regardless of their initial abilities, using the most visual practical material - money (Maria Montessori considered money exchange exercises to be the most effective activity for understanding counting).

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Exercises with numbers: counting to 10

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Count backwards often.

The most important thing a child should understand when learning to count to 10 is that each number is less than the next number and one more than the previous number.

A very useful exercise is to count by twos.

This is preparation for learning the multiplication tables.

Exercise “The numbers got lost” .

Place cards with numbers in front of your child and ask them to put them in the correct order.

Teach your child to break down numbers into their components.

Composition of the number: the basis of counting within the first ten. Knowing the composition of the number, the child will easily master addition and subtraction within 10, and later with the transition through ten.

We have five apples, let's treat the doll, the bunny and the bear. Now try to distribute the apples between the toys differently. So, we will show the child different options for decomposing a number into its components (composition of the number 5).

Play with money (fake money).

Play store more often: buy, count change, change, etc. The legendary teacher Maria Montessori noted that the best results in teaching children to count were shown by practicing with money.

How to teach counting to 20

You can teach your child to count to 20 when he can confidently count to 10. To quickly and easily master counting to 20, proceed in the following sequence:

Tell your child what zero is (if he doesn’t already know) using visual examples. For example, show two books or two other identical objects, and then remove them. Explain that there were two books, and now there are zero.
Show how new numbers are formed - it will be easier for the child to understand the principle using the example of numbers ending in zero. Tell us that in Old Russian “dtsat” means ten and, accordingly, the number 20 is two tens (you need to count to ten twice).
Introduce your child to the concept of “number composition” - also with the help of improvised objects: counting sticks, toys, fruits. Place 10 identical objects in one row, and on top place an object different from these ten, for example, a counting stick of a different color. Explain to your child that the number is eleven. By adding sticks on top, show how you get 12, 13, 14, and the rest of the numbers up to 20.
Give your child the task of collecting a certain number of identical objects (16, 17, 18, etc.), for example, small toys, and together count the number of objects out loud.
Reinforce the material using a number line from 0 to 20 - this way your child will learn to count to 20 much faster. You can draw a number line yourself or use a ruler 20 centimeters long. By practicing with a ruler, the baby will gradually remember how to write numbers and their correct sequence.

How to teach counting to 100

When a child learns to count to 20 without missing a beat, it’s time for parents to help their son or daughter master counting to one hundred. Try teaching your child to count to 100 this way:

Tell your child that numbers greater than ten used to be called “two tens,” “three tens,” “four tens,” and so on. Later, the word “ten” was shortened to “twenty” and the familiar “twenty”, “thirty”, “fifty” appeared. Exceptions to remember: "forty" (meaning "very many") and "ninety" (meaning "nine to a hundred").
Practice memorizing tens in the correct order from 10 to 100: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50...
Once you remember the correct sequence of tens, move on to units. Explain to your child that the numbers from 20 to 100 are not consecutive - there are always ones between them: 21, 22, 23, etc. Children who have mastered counting to 10 and 20 quickly understand and remember the sequence of counting to one hundred.
Ask your child to learn numbers gradually, one ten a day: from 10 to 20, from 20 to 30, and so on in order until 100.
Practice activities in game forms. Encourage children's love to look for inconsistencies and errors: deliberately skip a number in a series up to 100, and ask the child to find the “missing” number - such logic games help to quickly memorize counting up to 100.

Having mastered the numbers, proceed to gradually study the multiplication table. We have collected in one place and talked about the most effective ways that will help your child easily cope with this task!

Process of learning numbers

Step 1. Gradual study of numbers

Study only one number in one lesson, even if the child remembers it well and requires continuation. It is better to devote the remaining time to consolidating the material.

Step 2. Numbers on paper

Show your child numbers in bright pictures. You can print beautiful cards for these purposes. Large color images are better remembered than ordinary numbers written with a pen on paper:

Step 3. Spelling numbers

Let the child try to write the number on his own. Even if he does it poorly, when reproduced in writing, the number will be remembered better.

Step 4. Using associations when learning numbers

Use associations. The number "1" has a long nose, the number "2" looks like a swan, the "4" looks like an overturned chair, the "8" looks like a snowman, etc:

Step 5: Drawing Numbers

While sculpting and drawing, remember the numbers. Let your child draw and make a number that you recently learned.

Addition and Subtraction: Effective Ways to Learn

By the time they start school, most children already know how to operate basic math operations—addition and subtraction. The modern program for the first grades is structured in such a way that children are given addition and subtraction problems almost immediately - and it is better to learn to add and subtract in preschool age.

How to teach a child addition and subtraction: first steps

Start getting acquainted with basic mathematical operations by using visual objects - cubes, counting sticks or others convenient for the child:

disassemble the number 2: show the child that if you add one object and another object, you get 2;
in the same way, sort out the composition of the remaining numbers within 10;
make sure that the child understands the principle of disassembly and puts objects together without errors;
Having mastered addition, move on to subtraction using the same visual objects.

Addition and subtraction on fingers

When your child learns to add and subtract objects, move on to adding and subtracting on your fingers - or skip this stage if your son or daughter quickly and confidently adds and subtracts all surrounding objects. In any case, make sure that your child gradually weanes himself from counting on his fingers - teachers notice that the habit of counting on his fingers prevents children from learning to count in their heads.

How to teach your child to count on fingers:

Start with the five fingers of one hand, coming up with interesting puzzles for your baby. For example, an addition problem: “You have 2 cars, so straighten two fingers. My brother has 3 cars, stretch three more fingers. You have a total of 5 cars."
Offer to solve subtraction problems. For example: “Mom has 4 candies, stretch out four fingers. Mom gave you one candy, bend one finger. Mom has 3 candies left.”
When the child begins to add and subtract within five without errors, move on to similar activities involving all ten fingers.

How to teach a child to count in his head

The ability to add and subtract mentally is one of the most useful skills for a preschooler, which will greatly facilitate the study of mathematics at school. Before teaching your child to count in his head, make sure he knows how to add and subtract objects and can count at least within twenty.

How to teach a child to count in his head:

Create a clear connection in your child between number and visual image: connect games with mathematical dominoes and cubes. You can use a mathematical set using the Zaitsev method: a set of cards that connects a number and a geometric figure. Children respond well to lessons using Zaitsev’s method - gradually this way they can learn addition and subtraction even within a thousand.
Teach your child, if he doesn’t yet know, what “more”, “less”, “equally” means, using visual examples.
Spend enough time parsing the number. To add 4 and 3, a child must know that these numbers “fit” into the number 7. The same principle works with subtraction: in order to subtract 5 from 8, you need to know that 5 and 3 “fit” into 8.
Introduce your child to the rule “the sum does not change by changing the places of the terms.”
Include any gaming aids that your child likes: cubes, tables, counting sticks, cards, themed board games.

How to teach a child to count backwards

If a child can count to one hundred and understands well what units and tens are, there are usually no difficulties with counting in columns.

How to teach a child to count in a column:

Explain that numbers in a column are added and subtracted by digits: units - separately, tens - separately.
Show the sequence of actions if, when adding units, the result is a number greater than or equal to 10: you need to write down only the second digit, and remember the first. For convenience, the first resulting digit can be written above the tens place. Parents probably remember from their school days the expression: “We write two, one in our minds” (or other numbers from 0 to 9). Example: 17+15 = 7+5 = 12 (a two is written, a one goes to the tens) = 1+1+1 = 3 (the total sum of the tens place) = 32 (the first digit is the sum of the tens place, the second digit is the sum of the ones place ).
Teach your child to subtract columnarly. The principle of operation is almost the same as with addition, only if the upper digit in units is less than the lower one, then the missing unit must be “borrowed” from tens. For example: 31-13 = 11-3 = 8 (“occupied” the number 1 from the tens) = 2-1 = 1 (the number 3 in the tens decreased by the “occupied” unit) = 18.

Simple operations with objects: addition and subtraction

No, of course, I won’t write here that it’s time to solve the examples. We will simply unobtrusively, during the game, give the child an elementary and very simplified idea of such mathematical operations as addition and subtraction. Everything is just in a playful way! If the child finds it difficult or does not want to count, we simply pronounce the conclusion from the game situation ourselves : “There were three candies, we ate one, there are two left.” Here are some examples of games with which you can train your child’s mathematical thinking (let me remind you that so far we only use the smallest numbers in our games - within 4-5):

We take some toy and go with it into the forest in search of berries. For example, we played with a cat. Walking around the room, we found berries and pebbles of two colors under chairs and tables. Well, at the end they counted: “How many orange berries did the cat find? Three. How many yellow ones? Two. Now let's count how many berries he found. Five. It turns out that we collected 2 yellow berries and 3 orange ones, for a total of 5!”

The fixies gathered to repair the chair. They have 3 bolts. Let's calculate whether each fixie has enough bolts. How many more bolts do I need to find?

We transport the cubes in the car to the construction site (let's say 3 pieces). During transportation, one cube falls out. We count how many cubes are left.
We give the bear three candies, he eats two. We count how much he has left.
It is very interesting to play the so-called “hide and seek” game. For example, we draw four apples, then cover one with our palm, how many are left? Then we close two, etc.

Methods for teaching counting created by famous teachers

Try using one or more effective pedagogical techniques to study counting:

Peterson

The Peterson method teaches children mathematics exclusively in a playful way: with the help of cubes, drawing, and logic games.

Glen Doman

Glen Doman's method is entirely based on visualization: children see numbers on cards and the number of dots corresponding to the numbers, gradually mastering counting:

Prepare cards from cardboard: write a number on one side, and draw the number of dots corresponding to this number on the other.
Show your child a card with one dot and clearly state the number “One.”
Move on to other cards using the same pattern. Don’t delay - one card should take as much time as it takes to pronounce a certain number.

During the first few lessons, the child can act as an observer. Don't ask him to repeat it. After showing all the cards (10, 20 numbers depending on age), be sure to praise the baby, tell him how much you love him and how you like to teach him. You can treat your future mathematician to something tasty, since physical encouragement is an integral part of Glen Doman’s method.

From lesson 3-4, you can start shuffling the cards, that is, showing them not in a clear numerical order. Remember the main thing: we show quickly, we praise generously.

Mental arithmetic

Children learn to count using dominoes, and later immediately begin to count in their heads without using an abacus or any other tools.

Division

Division on Russian accounts is a rather complicated procedure. Using an abacus for this is sometimes simply irrational. If the example is convenient, let’s say you need to divide 280 by 2, then really, you just need to move half of the dominoes from each row to the right and then you get 140. But other examples, for the most part, require complex algorithms and good development of attention and short-term memory.

We also recommend reading:

Storytelling
How to teach a child to count quickly in his head
Zero. This important nothing
Is it possible to count in your head and remember, like Daniel Tammet?
Multiplying by 11
How to solve a system in your head?
How to remember the number Pi?
Number search problem
Chinese or Japanese multiplication
How to learn the multiplication table
Mental arithmetic

Key words:_D1001, _D1067, 1Mnemonics, 2Cognitive science