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Number help
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My daughter is 4 1/2 and we are learning our number recognition – She knows 0-5 but she is having the hardest time remember 6 I dont know why. We have been going over it for the past few days and every time I ask her her numbers 0-6 she forgets six and says that its 3 or a 5 or something else. Any suggestions?
Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about the number symbol recognition right now if she is getting confused. I know Ruth Beechick talks there being 3 stages of mathematical thinking – first working with concrete objects (count out groups of 6 items), then working with pictures (draw or identify a picture of 6 items), and then the symbolic stage (recognizing and connecting the symbol “6” with the group of 6 objects.) (She goes into a lot more detail on this in her book The 3 R’s). I am not using the full RightStart math curriculum, but we are using the Right Start Games kit and the number concepts games focus a lot on visual recognition of groups before adding in the number symbols as well. So, if it was me, I would ditch the number-symbol recognition for now and focus on counting out and recognizing groups of objects for now…start small with numbers under 5 to begin with and gradually work up one at a time as she shows understanding of the smaller numbers. Once she has gotten the visual concept of numbers down you can add in matching those groups with the number symbols and probably find it much easier.
HTH
Jen
She knows what 1 – 5 looks like by recognition and items…like if I lay out 3 items like what “RightStart” recommends she can tell me there are 3 without counting. Today I did a chart with the numbers on top out of order and then underneath I had her stamp how much the number said to do. Like if there was a number 5 on top she had to stamp 5 times. And she did the number 6 then looked at me and said 6 right? I know she is still young, and I dont want to pressure her….Im just not sure if she is doing this because she truly cant remember or she just doesnt feel like telling me? .
she probably can’t remember. Numbers are an abstract concept. I’m working on counting and # recognition with my dd age 4 and we just work on it a few times per week and I just gently say that is 5. Someday it will click! We do calendar every day and other activies that reinforce the numbers. By K I’m sure it’ll stick better in her brain!
Tara
Did you have 5 items of a colour, and 1 of another? Or did you group the items into 5, and a space between the 1?
Does she recognize 6 fingers? (5 on one hand, 1 on the other)?
It will probably just take a bit of time…
Im not sure if she recognizes it that way, I will try it tomorrow. Thank you for your suggestion Susukimom!
I would just keep filling in the blank when she doesn’t recognize it. Like seeing a pattern or hearing a piece of music over and over again, she will eventually remember. It’s better that she hear the correct name of the symbol every time she falters than that she guess wildly and reinforce wrong information in her mind. It reminds me of CM’s recommendation that you erase a mispelled word as quickly as possible and replace it with the proper spelling so that the child learns to “see” the proper spelling in his head.
It’s tough not to push our eldest children. By the time the next couple roll around, you realize that they will pick things up when they are ready to, no matter how hard you try to force it. Pushing them may “help” them to figure it out a little faster, but it often leads to a lot of frustration and to rebellion – either outright or passive-aggressively. (My DD2 is the queen of “I can’t remember” when I push her too far.) Don’t worry. She will get it. How many 15 year olds do you know who can’t recognize the number 6?
Best of luck.
I can relate to what you are saying. My son is 6 and gets stuck on 7 and 8. He is developmentally delayed, so I am accounting for that. But he too got 1-5 rather easily, and then 6 without too much effort. Those all came naturally.
He also remembers 9 and 10 90% of the time, but he just goes blank with 7 and 8.
I am taking the advice many have offered here and I just help him if he is guessing. And most of the time, once I say “7, 8”, he picks back up with “9, 10”.
I guess he is just having a hard time remembering those two. He can do 1 to 1 counting using objects and number cards, and he often recognizes the number 7 and number 8. He just can’t remember it when counting aloud.
I agree with others that you can just help as needed and keep using different hands-on ways to reinforce it.
I love our Education Cubes. They have lots of number insert cards. And the sky is the limit for using them. I posted today about using them on our blog. I have links to the site on my blog if you are interested. I would post here but wasn’t sure if I could?
With Rightstart (which you said you were using) the forums often talk about kids hitting a wall with something…. and the general advice is to play the games (mostly review games, maybe the occasional one with the idea/concept being worked on) and “camp out” for a while… that generally either the review helps, or the child maturing a little more does.
I’m not sure if you actually started RightStart yet – but if I did anything at this point I’d play games like memory with the finger cards and also with the abacus-dot cards…. or at that age (4+1/2), I’d just wait a while. There really isn’t a rush.
Thank you all so much for your advice, it has really helped! Yesterday she remembered the number 6 but today when we played hopscotch I wrote the number 6 in one of the squares and she said “oh that number” lol…so Im trying really hard to be understanding. She is really good a memorizing, she can memorize poems, verses, etc….but the number 6.
Really, there isn’t a big rush. She’ll get it.
maybe this happens more with younger kids (ie ones with older siblings)…. but I am often amazed by what my younger children know that I never taught them… I never taught my 5yo the alphabet when she was younger – she knew it… I think the same with my 3yo… I’m not sure if she can recognize EVERY letter – but she knows a lot. man, my 3yo wrote her name the other day (you couldn’t recognize all the letters, but some you could, and she knew how to spell her name…) Honestly, kids learn a lot on their own. I suspect when there is older siblings there is more information flying around, so yes, I think teaching the oldest some things when young may be needed… but they are just little information sponges.
I know what you mean, I have a 2 1/2 year old boy and he knows all the sounds to the alphabet already! Its crazy! My 4 1/2 year old one night when she was 3 was taking a bath and she sang the whole alphabet and I didnt even know she had really known it. It is crazy how quickly they learn things, I guess I just think she is so smart that she should understand what a 6 looks like….I just need to chill and let her learn. Maybe Im pressuring her too much with that number. lol
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