My son had a terrible time with place value and then one day I sat down and on a white board showed him that there are 3 places or rooms to a family or house.
A hundred place, a tens place, a ones place once the hundreds place has more than 9 in it, then the next # starts a new ones place in a new family The Thousands and once the hundreds place in the Thousands family has more than 9 in it, then the next # starts a new ones place in a new family The Millions and once the hundreds place in the Millions family has a 9 in it, then the next # starts a new ones place in a new family The Billions and etc… You can tell the difference between the families because there is a , or picture it as a fence between the houses….
Billions, Millions, Thousands, (name of this family or house is based on what you are counting…dollars, pigs, people, etc.)
HTO, HTO, HTO, HTO
978, 654, 321, 012
978,654,321,012 = Nine Hundred Seventy eight Billion, six hindred fifty four Million, three hundred twenty one Thousand, and twelve whatever you are counting and if you don’t know what you are counting this house or family is left with no name 🙂
Had to tell him that when we read the number, we start on left and with the hundreds place, tens place, ones place then family, etc…
This is the only thing that my son understood. I showed him video after video on youtube, Kahn academy and anything else I could think of. Hope it helps. he is 7 and now gets it pretty well.
Channa