I love school time!! I love everything about the new notebooks and pencils, the smell of new classrooms, new school clothes and backpacks, but mostly – I love the learning! This year we have our oldest son in pre-school! It is so fun to watch him grow and develop already in the first few weeks of learning. Right now he is learning his numbers and letters, and because of that, I thought it would be fun to have Jessica from Education.com come and teach us the BEST way to teach your toddler how to count from 1 – 10!!
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{enter Jessica}
While counting might be a difficult concept for young kids at first, repetition is crucial. Number knowledge forms the foundation for everything they will learn in mathematics for the rest of their lives.
Numeration is discovering and understanding the “manyness” of numbers. To begin your child’s number practice, focus on the “manyness” of numbers one through ten.
You are probably already doing this with your young child, which is the basics of teaching your toddler how to count. It’s easy to refer to toddlers “how many” there are of something, or rather, “how many things they can have”.
It’s generally easy to understand the concept of one. Your child has been asking for “one” of something since learning to speak! Two is also a manageable concept for your child to grasp because the idea of two has been a part of her knowledge bank since she discovered that she possessed two hands to hold things and realized that this was more than one.
The real complexity begins with the number three, so that’s a great place to start!
What You’ll Need:
- 10 counters (we used candy so the kids could look forward to a sweet treat)
How to Teach Your Toddler How to Count:
- Give your child three counters (objects to help them count).
- Instruct her to move her counters into different positions and have her describe their locations.
- Have her create a pattern with the candies and then reorder them in a different way.
- After she becomes familiar with this set of three candies, encourage her to count to three out loud.
- Repeat this activity with the numbers four and five at a later time. As you introduce her to each new number, explain that she is arriving at the new number by adding one to the previous number she was learning about. For example, when you introduce four you could say, “The last number we talked about is the number three. When you add one to three you have the number four.”
- Introduce zero only after numbers one through ten. Emphasize to your child that having “zero candies” is different than simply not having any candy.
The secret? Keep practicing!! Teaching your toddler how to count from 1 – 10 will be easier the more you practice. Count with any objects you can find! She can count books, blocks, stuffed animals, and even food! Changing the types of counters is a great way to reinforce the concepts while keeping the activity fun and helping her get all the practice she needs.
{end of guest speaker…}
Isn’t that so easy, yet can’t you see how effective it could be! We’ve actually tried these steps with our 2 year old to teach her how to count from 1 – 10 and it is amazing to see how they work! She especially loves when we practice with THESE!
What are your favorite ways to teach your toddler how to count from 1 – 10? Share your experience below!!
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