HELLO ALL! It's been awhile! I had my son for the holidays then some health issues with my mom, but my mind has been working on ideas to help you lead your children to reading success. Often as moms and dads, we feel the we are the only ones invested mentally and physically in our children's learning processes, but just when you are overwhelmed....remember that Laura Martin is with you with empathy, thinking about you and your challenges and praying for you!! You may wonder how teaching your children numbers and counting will affect their reading skills. We encounter a lot of numbers within a book; so if the reader cannot recognize and name numbers, it will negatively impact their reading fluency. Of course knowing numbers and having the ability to count are positive accomplishments even outside of the reading context, but it interested me due to its' impact on reading success. Of course my creative daughter, Shelby, came up with lots of fun ways for her boys to their learn numbers (names for each number, writing numbers and counting by 1's, 5’s and 10’s). She continues to generously share ideas, pictures and videos with me that I can share with you. I hope you will pick up some new ideas for you or others in your life in the midst of the task of teaching your children in your life number naming and counting. p.s. In order to not add anything to Shelby's BUSY life, I just screen shotted pictures off her Instagram (she doesn't mind :). Sorry for the lower quality shots. I normally bug her for professional photos since she is a photographer (www.simoneplusphotography.com), but I couldn't bring myself to do it THIS TIME! I'll be asking you next time, Sha, especially since I just plugged your business! The first task at hand is recognizing numbers and being able to name them. All kids need this skill for life because we are constantly faced with numbers in the marketplace, finances, etc., but, again, we also need numbers skills for fluent reading, which is the point of this blog post. We can expose our children to numbers in a zillion ways.....printable or store bought flash cards, plastic refrigerator magnets, number puzzles, books about numbers, tracing numbers, etc. Shelby was working with Ollie on his numbers, but she felt like she was hitting a wall on certain ones. She chose a toy clock, and it turned out to be useful for cleaning up his number recognition gaps. The dual benefit of using a clock for learning numbers is that they learn to tell time as well. If they are too young for learning to tell time (below age 5 for the average child), it could be frustrating to use the clock for teaching time. If your child is too young, consider just using the clocks arms to point to the numbers solely for the purpose of learning their numbers. You can use that clock later in their development to work on telling time. After teaching your children the names of letters and to count by ones (have them count crayons, hair ties, pennies, cheerios, cookies, candy, carrots on their plate, etc......basically everything and anything all day long.....and they will get it in time), the next step is to teach them to count by 10's. The transition from 1's to 10's is much easier than from 1's to 5's. Knowing how to count by tens helps save time for counting sake, but remember we are learning numbers in this blog post to facilitate fluent reading. It is likely that your children will encounter numbers in the 10's families (10's, 20's, 30's, etc), so we need to make sure they know how to name this larger sequence of numbers. Shelby had a great idea to employ Ollie's favorite cars into this learning process. Shelby and Ollie raced the cars next to the line of numbers, saying them together as they passed each number. Slowly but surely, allow your child to try it for themselves and see how their recall of the numbers is coming along. As seen in the first picture of this blog, Shelby was surprised how quickly Ollie learned to count by 10's. The foundation was already laid since he could count by ones, and as I mentioned earlier, the transition from 1's to 10's should be fairly smooth. BUT....now we will have to deal with counting by 5's. Let's see how Shelby did it!!! Firstly, Shelby introduced the idea of counting by 5's. Here is the process: 1. Make or purchase some flash cards 2. Lay them on the ground 3. Count by 5 and allow your child to listen 4. Explain to them how you are counting in larger chunks than counting by 1's but smaller than counting by 10's. Games were the key to helping Ollie learn how to count by 5's. She then used those flash cards to play a fun game of TWISTER. Here is how it works: 1. Say a number and a body part that has to be placed on that number (e.g. 5, right hand) 2. When the child has placed both hands and both feet on numbers than have them move them somewhere else (e.g. Take your right hand and move it to the number 25) 3. This is a fun game mixing letting recognition with dexterity and some great laughs as they often get 'TWISTED' up and end up on the floor laughing hysterically. Learning can and should be fun! Another game Shelby used to practice counting by 5's is called the LAVA GAME. Here is how it works: 1. Lay your flash cards in order by 5's (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc.). 2. Your child has to hop from one to the next saying them when his foot lands on the flash card. 3. If they fall off the cards, then they sink in the 'lava' and have to start over. 4. The repetition will help them learn to count by 5's and the falling in the lava will again create some memorable laughs! Above are some more fun methods of learning to count. Shelby used it to count by 10's, but you could use it for any sequence (1's, 2's, 5's, 10's, 100's, etc.). Try to add in a little brother or sister for some serious giggles!
1. Have your child hop from 10 to 20 to 30 to 40, etc., while saying each name as they step on the number. 2. Slide a disk or hockey puck towards a particular number trying to get it on the number that was said by Dad/Mom. This helps the child with their listening and number recognition skills. 3. The child tells the parent/grandparent, which number comes next and they have to hop onto that number. This helps the child with their number naming skills. LORD, HELP US TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN NUMBER NAMES AND COUNTING SKILLS. MAY IT BE USEFUL IN MANY AREAS IF THEIR LIVES, ESPECIALLY READING! HELP US TO BE CREATIVE AND LOVING ALL ALONG THE WAY!!
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