I have a question for all the parents that have older toddlers.
My daughter just turned 3. She reads amazingly well. Her Montessori teacher said she is
on a 2nd-3rd grade reading level. However, my daughter does not want anything to do with numbers.
She can count from 1-12. She can read the word of any number but if I put any numerical number, for instance 23, in front of her she just stares at it.
She learned to read very quickly with YBCR and YCCR. She advanced very quickly and grasped it easily.
I find math is extremely difficult with her. Has anyone else gone through this?
Any suggestion?
Your child is doing great! congratulations on your reading success.
Some ideas to get you started on the math.
Read books on math topics. Children’s picture books that is. Your local library will have plenty but there are some really great series for math in particular penrose the cat and number tales are regularly recomended.
Realise that math is much more than just numbers. Math is shapes, counting, measuring, volume, weight, size, order, patterns,time, calendars, and much much more! Perhaps your child is more interested in other areas and you could start there instead. For ideas try Kitchen Table math or Marshmallow Math books. Both available on amazon for you to read and learn how to teach math from.
My son at age 3/4 used little math. Now he had no chance ( IMHO) of ever getting subitization from it but he certainy learnt a whole lot of common scence with numbers from it. He understands number quantity intuitively. He knows 98 is bigger then 58 and how much by from Little math. Even if he couldn’t tell you the difference is exactly 20 he can picture it in his head. Perhaps try some math dots cards NAND apps NAND trial Little math to see how she likes it.
Math numerals ( that’s the. Numbers) are a very abstract concept and it takes quite a lot of practical exploration to understand that the number 3 is really just a picture of 3 items. Do a lot of counting of toys and objects during play. “Oh we have 5 Teddy’s, 12345 let’s add one more…how many do we have now? 123456 we have 6 now. 5 plus 1 more is 6” type stuff.
There are two amazing threads on this forum about teaching math to toddlers. Here is the link for one. Have a read through you will learn lots http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/pick-just-1-program-to-teach-toddler-math/
I can’t remember the other threads name but it will be linked in that one I would think…let me know if you don’t find it
Generally, 2 or 3 year old girls grasp to sound information really well. I would suggest you to be her Reading Tutor. Try to count upto 30 or 50 for a week or two. This will surely work.
don’t worry too much about the counting or recognising a number like 23 for now. Real math is also about quantities and understanding concepts such as more or less and how quantities change when you add and take away. Use objects that interest her, such as sweeties or lollipops or apples, and talk about how many they are, how they can be distributed fairly, how much she has now, how much she will have if you take one away and things like that.
I also play games with dice to encourage quick number recognition. So we play a game with dice (usually when another child is present) and they need to shout out the number shown on the dice quickly. This is to get them to move from counting the dots to recognising a six without counting. Also you can look at dots and see how a six is to sets of three, or a four is two sets of two.
And then there is all the stuff discussed on the other thread, of course! My 3.5 year old also enjoys the Monkey Lunchbox / Monkey Math apps!
Have you tried “do a dot” exercises? I found this website that has tons of info on them. http://www.giftofcuriosity.com/15-ideas-for-using-do-a-dot-printables-to-help-kids-learn/
There’s a lot of other free do a dot printables that could be found on the internet, or you can adapt these ones for number recognition - your daughter might be a sensorial learner in maths, not visual, which means she needs to feel and touch what is being taught. Try different touchy - feely number games - cut out numbers from cardboard then let her wrap colored cotton thread through, make a “sensory bottle” with a filling of your choice with numbers inside, do foam or potato number printing - this sort of stuff. Also - I think Montessori number beads and rods are genius. http://straightfromthebelly.com/diy-montessori-number-rods/ http://livingmontessorinow.com/2011/08/08/montessori-monday-diy-bead-bars/ (I suggest you subscribe to this one, lots of inspiration)
Hope this helps
