How do I teach my child to count?

At what age should I teach my child to count? What to do if the child himself shows interest in touch math numbers printable? How to properly teach a child to count without overloading him with information? These and many other questions about counting are answered in our article.

What’s the Proper Way to Teach Math to a Child
Many kids come to first grade already with counting and reading skills, so for parents it becomes a pressing question: how to teach your child to count when he goes to first grade. Today there are a large number of techniques that allow you to properly teach your child counting – interesting, fun, while playing or doing simple household chores. It is important to understand that unlike adults, it is difficult for a child to imagine something abstract, so the items you are talking about when teaching counting must be clear and familiar to the child so that he can look at and touch them. Two oranges or four plates he will be able to understand, but abstract sets are unlikely.

Do not impose counting on the child, it should be easy, as if by the way, in the process of daily activities. Count familiar objects together, gradually complicating the tasks.

When to teach a child to count
Most experts agree that the best time for teaching kids counting – 3-5 years, at this age a child begins to experience interest in new knowledge and learns to establish patterns between the numbers. First, check out list of sight words for kindergarteners. However, everything is very individual, so if a child is actively mastering the world and is interested in numbers earlier, you can start training from the age of 1.5 years. If you did not master counting at preschool age and are wondering how to teach your child to count in the first grade, pay attention to the methods in our article.

What techniques to use to teach counting
Today it is quite easy to learn how to teach a child to count, there are proven techniques that allow you to do it in a game form, interesting for the child:

Counting on the fingers. This technique helps to understand how to teach a child to count to 10. It will be difficult for a kid to remember ten numbers at once, so you can start with five and focus on the fingers of one hand. Introduce the child to the names of the first five digits, and then connect the second hand. You can use finger games where one disappears or two or three fingers meet together.
Use educational cards and sticks. You can put them one by one on the table and call the numbers, then move one part of the sticks to the right and the other to the left and ask how many sticks are in each part. Better help a child memorize the numbers are cards with objects depicted on them, for example, six hats, two kittens, three bananas.
Counting with objects. This method is good for teaching a child to count to 20. After the child learns to count to ten, explain to him or her that in the second ten numbers consist of two digits, the first of the digits will be tens, and the second will be ones. You can use two boxes for this – put ten cubes in one and one in the other, such a way to visually demonstrate the difference between tens and ones. You can also use objects, if you want to understand how to teach a child to count by tens. Objects or strips should be laid out in tens one after another and explain to the child that they count in tens in the same way as units, but use “ten.
Games with numbers. Play “store” with your child, choosing who will be the seller and who will be the buyer, assign a currency. Selling or buying candy and toys, the child can easily memorize numbers up to ten and even twenty.
Montessori Method. This method is similar to the store game because Maria Montessori believed that one of the best ways to teach counting was through operations with money or moults of money. You can give your child different coins, for example, a ruble, two, five, and ask him or her to count the amount or to change it.