Math Troubles

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  • July 6, 2011 at 4:09 pm
    LindseyD
    Participant

    DD will be 6 in less than 2 weeks. We have been leisurely working our way through MUS Primer. She is having the hardest time counting by 2’s. I can’t figure out why. She will count to 12 just fine (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12); then she either says 13 or she says 40. If she says 40, she continues to count by 10’s instead of by 2’s all the way to 100. I have written out the numbers side by side to show her the difference. I have explained that 2’s and 10’s are very different. I can’t seem to get her to understand that 40 and 14, 60 and 16, etc. are totally different numbers.

    Maybe she gets confused because they sound similar? I can’t figure it out. Any wisdom is appreciated!

    Blessings,

    Lindsey

    July 6, 2011 at 4:19 pm
    Bookworm
    Participant

    Lindsey, do you think it might help to use the “Demme names” and call them “Four-tens” and “Six-tens” instead of “forty” and “sixty”?  Or perhaps use the names for eleven and twelve to help emphasize to her that the teens are just like twelve, and the forty is really four-tens?

    July 6, 2011 at 4:22 pm
    Rebekahy
    Participant

    Do you have the skip counting song?  That might help her to at least SAY the right thing, though it won’t fix the 40/14 problem quantitative issue (my dd is five and has the same struggle – perhaps it is common at this age).  The other thing that seems to help is to have the blocks and build with them as we count so she can actually SEE what she is saying.  Also, keep practicing the way where you whisper the number in between – that way if she hears YOU say 13, she’ll know that 13 does not come after 12 when counting by twos.

    So glad to see you back on the board, I have been praying for you family!

     

    Rebekah

    July 6, 2011 at 4:34 pm
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    Rightstart has you work on odd/even at the same time as + 2.  You could focus more on pairs (even).  A few books we have used are Mathstart’s Missing Mittens.  Kids love that one.  Also, Even Steven and Odd Todd. 

    Count pairs of socks or food you eat by 2’s.  We watched Justin on Mathtacular and he demonstrated “Pair Snacks”.  He counted out crackers for his snacks by 2 and counted an odd number, say 9.  Since everyone likes things to come in even pairs, he says, “Oh no, there’s an odd one left.  I know how to fix that!”  And he eats one.  The kids laugh at this.  Then we started doing this at snack time.  The kids have fun with it.

    July 6, 2011 at 4:37 pm
    Richele Baburina
    Participant

    Hi Lindsey,

    Skip counting by two’s up to twelve is great!  Having a five year old understand what is being counted is important, so as Rebekahy said, get the blocks out.  You may want to have a number of other manipulatives as well (beads, pebbles, squishies, etc.) so she can see that no matter which thing she is counting or skip-counting, the objects will add the same way.  That ability to have the same outcome is also a (may I use the word ‘gentle’) demonstration that arithmetic is a way of expressing laws and relationships created by G_d.

    Blessings,

    Richele

    July 8, 2011 at 2:02 am
    kerby
    Participant

    That’s young.  It will come w/ more time and practice.  I made up a 100 Chart for my dc to use.  I jotted down “even” and “odd” at the top over the columns that were just that.  I let them use the chart.  Over time, they needed it less and less until they don’t need it at all. 

    K

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