Help! I am very frustrated now. I have been doing Little Math with my 1 year 8 month old girl until lessons for Day 119 until today I found that she doesn’t even understand what is the quantity ‘one’. Ever since she was 4 months old, I started her on the Doman method by flashing her dot cards. I have followed the program from 1 to 100 dots (including equations) and has repeated this for 3 times because she did not show any sign of being able to solve the equations correctly. Seems to me that she is just guessing. Then I started Little Math about 4 months ago. She would sit through quietly through LM even though I know she is not as thrilled to see LM as she is to see LR. Today, I asked her which card shows one apple on the iPad out of 4 choices and she got it wrong. I continued with a few more questions that involves only quantities from 1 to 10, and it just goes on to prove that she doesn’t know her quantities. I can’t believe my eyes. I sat her in front of the computer, showed her the quantity one on LM, and then asked her to point out the card with one apple on the iPad, she would point to the wrong answer. Same thing for other quantities from 1 to 5. Just once in a while, she would give me the correct answer.
I really don’t know how to go on with the program. Should I continue to repeat the lessons of the first few days of LM until I am sure she understands at least quantities from 1 to 10 or to 20? Why can’t she point to the correct answer even after I showed her the answer in a different icon? I am really stuck here and am starting to believe that my child can’t learn math. Does anyone has similar experience? Can anyone share their experience and help me out here?
Hello minmin!
It sounds like you are very caring and loving mom. Your situation sounds so frustrating. I hope someone with more experience than me can really help you with this one. I wish I had any encouragement for you. Best luck!
Kristiina
I would suggest Marshmallow Math. Many moms recommended this book. The gist is that there are several steps (or scaffolding, if you will) that you’ll need to build before you can do the flashing. The foremost importance is the 1-to-1 correspondence, that is, one dot represents one item. I’ll let you read the book and apply some of the games. Once this 1-to-1 correspondence is established, you can choose to either follow the book or get back to LM.
Hope this helps.
Wow, that sounds very stressful, but never fear. If your baby didn’t protest or seem annoyed by LM then it wasn’t a waste.
What have you been doing to supplement and enrich LM? Do you count things through out the day? Do you talk about and read about math and simple math concepts with the baby? At 20 months your baby is a lot more interactive now so it is feasible to adapt PreK or Kindergarten math lessons down to their level but you have to be respectful of their attention span and plan to keep activities short.
I recommend adding in a dash of math here and there. I would start with counting and identifying numerals
Everyday I would count out 10 items for and with baby but each week I would FOCUS on only 1 or 2 numbers a week.
EVERDAY count out 10 items (cars, toys, whatever.) repeatedly but focus on whatever the quantity of the week is.
I say get some items to count. Don’t just say numbers in sequence to the baby count with the baby. Get an empty peanut butter jar and put 10 items in it. (blocks, bottle caps, whatever) and take them out and count them infront of, to, for and with your baby a few times each day, no matter what.
Each week, focus on 1 or 2 quantities with baby. Post up the quantities on the wall, put the numerals next to them and play games, count that amount at meal times, make a short book about that number, etc…
Week 1
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 1 and 2
Week 2
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 2 and 3.
Week 3
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 3 and 4
Week 4
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 4 and 5.
Week 5
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 5 and 6
Week 6
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 6 and 7
Week 7
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 7 and 8
Week 8
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 8 and 9
Week 9
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 9 and 10
Week 10
Count 10 items (at least) 3x daily and focus on 10 and 0
I would probably print out some flashcards from LMs early lessons and use them to flash the quantities that we’re focusing on that week. But pull some PreK and K resources offline to make little books for the baby and read them with the baby.
Once baby gets a better understanding of 0-10
Then I would begin counting higher, to 20 everyday for a while, teaching addition and subtraction of amounts within 0-10 and playing lots of number games with baby and number puzzles. Adapt a PreK or KG scope to their level and if baby doesn’t object to LM, then I would probably continue using it. (Maybe consider restarting but doing the lessons to support what you are doing at home?
Dont give up hope, dont stop playing math lessons with baby unless one of you becomes stressed or agitated by the lessons.
Hope that this helps.
Also, just thought that I’d add that many families seem to get reading underway before starting math with their babies. So over the next couple of months, while your working on quantities 0-10 with baby, I would highlight or continue to move forward with reading and try to be relaxed and calm about math.
Check your local library and see if they have a list of books about numbers and math for the PreK and KG age. Read those books as often as you can, count the pictures on the pages and stuff like that.
I would look into something like Before Five in a Row—a literature based PreK curriculum and Marshmallow Math–a PreK through 3rd grade math curriculum, both of which are appropriate for children around 2 years of age, start reading, planning and adapting those type of ideas into your lessons for your baby and see if it makes any difference.
Thank you robbyjo and mom2bee for your advice. I did not really supplement LM with anything. I didn’t do counting with her because I thought at her age she should be able to perceive the quantity as it is immediately and that I shouldn’t introduce counting yet. But since I am not getting any positive results from flashing, maybe I should just switch to counting.
Mom2bee, I have a question for you. I am thinking of trying out your suggestion. If I do counting with her, would she be able to learn until 100? I mean counting from 0 to 30 may be OK, but how about from 40 and above? It will take a long time right? Will she be able to adapt to flash cards from LM, if she starts counting?
Thank you.
Minmin,
I think you should focus on counting to 5 first, then 10, then 20. The Marshmallow Math (MM) book I linked above has some strategies to count to 100, using grouping. But before you can do grouping, you’ll need to train your child to sight-counting and short-term memory. MM book has some strategies for that.
If you want to have some video programs to supplement both LM and MM book, I’d heartily recommend Sparkabilities and Your Baby / Child Can Discover. Sparkabilities and YBCD have some counting, short term memory, and grouping lessons too (among other things). Once your child masters these programs, continue towards YCCD.
(Note: Some lessons about shapes and music in YBCD/YCCD are not appropriate for younger toddlers, in my opinion, but the rest of the programs are good).
Of course she can learn to count to 100. And beyond. I would focus on getting to 10 first. By the time you master the counting to 10 and understanding that quantity, your daughter will be 2, almost 3 months older. You can speed up the pace of the lessons, and even explore more concepts.
Learning isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon. Instilling a love of learning in your toddler is a worthwhile endeavor so try and not worry about ‘how long’ it will take. Try and think about how much she will enjoy all that she’ll know by the time she is 5, 10, 15 and 18 years old. Start out slow and gentle, help your child understand the small things and be patient with them. You have to ask yourself what is the goal of doing EL with your daughter? How far will you go to reach that goal and what are the things you will NOT do to that goal. (ie stress your daughter out, make her anxious, or make a habit out of stressing yourself out day to day in hopes that she’ll count to 100).
I say go to 10 first, then go to 20. Once you get to 20, introduce a 100 chart and skip counting. First just do skip counting to 20 by 1, 2, 5 and 10. But count to 100 with your daughter regularly and point out the numbers on the chart. She’ll probably pick it up a lot faster once she gets the basics down.
Thank you for the precious advices. I shall try them out and see how my daughter learns math that way. Thank you for reminding me to be patient. 
Personally, I think she is young and that the expectations might be a bit high. I would stick with LM until she is 24 months at least and then reassess.
We didn’t use LM but I did use real items. I showed quantity and numerals and we matched them a lot. I think this helped my son get a good number sense.
Counting is just saying numbers in my opinion. Yes kids need to count, at some point. But it is very abstract for them. I know many tots that can count to high values. But they are unable to show that they even know what the amounts are.
Instead of counting I would encourage showing quantities. Start with only showing quantities of 1, 2 and 3. Then increase them gradually.
Count by numerals rather than pointing to 1 item at a time. By pointing to one thing you are showing that each 1 thing has a different name. It can get confusing.
Oh and math is so much more than just counting. Some other things you can teach are:
2D and 3D shapes
Time
Money
Sizes
Positions
Quantities
Measurements
Fractions
And so much more.
Your welcome! Let us know how it goes.
Oh! and I realized that it might not be clear, but many times as adults, we don’t put enough stock in counting. But counting isn’t a small thing, it is fundamental to all of arithmetic and without a good sense of counting, one will most likely struggle unnecessarily in other math topics, but not if learning to count is done correctly. There are many concepts that go into counting and I highly encourage that you work in each of these as you go.
–Counting (forwards and backwards)
–Skip Counting (forwards and backwards) by 2, 5, 10.
–Greater than, Less than
–Ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th…)
–Counting on (e.g. starting at 5 and counting on 4 more.)
–Number Lines
–Number Charts
–Understanding Quantity
–One to One correspondence
–Place Value
–Counting objects
–Pairs of amounts make up a number (3 and 5, 6 and 2, 4 and 7–each of these is a way to make eight.)
–Simple fractions
I suggest that you demonstrate counting forwards and backwards everyday, with your daughter. Starting from whenever you begin working on the quantity 2. Count forwards and backwards regularly.
All of the topics that I listed can be introduced, explored and practiced through stress-free lessons, daily activities and fun games. You are a great mom for putting so much time into your daughters early education, but I have to encourage you to have a big dose of fun each time that you do.
Play rocket launch (counting up and down)
Tea parties (fractions and one to one correspondence)
Solving puzzles (count the pieces, put them in order, sequencing…)
share simple chores such as setting the table, sorting laundry (making comparisons, finding matches) and shelving books and toys on the shelf. (ordinals)
Read books, count the pages, the pictures, compare the number of cats on each page of a 2 page spread in a picture book. Make your daughter aware of how immersed in math real life is, teach her to measure cups of raisins for oatmeal or count eggs for breakfast. Make, buy or print some simple board games that will let you and your daughter use math for fun!
Draw shapes and count the corners, sides, edges, whatever.
Sort toys, shape blocks and any things else by different characteristics.
Split up groups of toys or items into even groups. Use skip counting to double check your work (while stealthily exposing her to multiplication and division)
Learning to ‘count’ isn’t a small feat, it isn’t insignificant and if you wind up with a 4yo or even a 6yo who can really, truly count to 100. Meaning she can do any or all of the things I listed above, then you have a child who is ready for 3rd grade math, because she’ll have mastered the essentials. Either way you come out years ahead and with memories to last a life time.
Also, almost no one needs to be explicitly taught to 100. Children pick up on the pattern by 30 or 40 at the latest. Find what works for your and your daughter and work regularly. (I recommend being consistent in the beginning but once she’s counting to 10, I don’t see how being more lax on formal lessons but keeping her engaged other wise on the same concepts is a problem) I expect that in a few months, your daughter will be advancing and progressing quite nicely through anything she and you set your sights on.
Best of luck, minmin, I have complete faith in you.
–Mom2bee
My daughter was a little similar. We did Doman dots from birth to age one; at around 9 months she would correctly pick out the solution to an equation more than half the time, so I thought we were doing well. At a little after a year, she completely stopped picking the correct word or quantity when I asked her a question. She would hardly look at the cards, no matter what I tried. So I changed to other things. For reading, we started phonics. Math was harder, but we did some things, and now at 2 1/2 she can do basic addition and subtraction with manipulatives. Not amazing success, but pretty good. She can do kindergarten-level math programs right now. I’m trying to say, don’t be too frustrated! Kids go through stages like that; at least, mine did it too.
If she’ll watch LM, I’d keep showing it, as long as it’s fun for both of you. Don’t worry about whether or not she’s learning anything; it’s getting cemented deep into her brain, even if you don’t see the results. But add other math throughout your day.
There are two main ideas about early math, and you’ve seen both in this thread: counting or quantities. Some people say counting with your child is most important, so she learns the names of the numbers. Others say that counting by rote does no good and you should only use the name of the quantity you have until she has a firm grasp of what you mean when you say a number. Some say to only count when you have physical objects and others say it’s fine to learn the numbers one to ten as a rote poem. There are educators who only count and educators who only subitize (like Doman), but unless you feel strongly about one of them, there’s no reason not to do both.
Marshmallow Math is a fabulous book, well worth the money. It gives you ideas for making math a part of your life. It is more on the “counting” side of the spectrum, if you care. There was a long thread on teaching toddlers math a few months ago, and what I took away from it is that if we want our kids to be as comfortable with math as they are with reading, they need to see/hear us doing math with them as much as we read to them. This is not easy! At the moment, I try to do one piece of math for every book I read, but ideally it would be the same amount of time spent on reading and math. Good luck! Marshmallow Math gives lots of ideas. I use the books themselves as my trigger: “Look, there are five ducklings in the pond! Turn the page. One stopped; now there are only four behind Mommy Duck.” You can also find opportunities to count (if you’re doing the rote counting method) when you’re waiting for anything: “I can help you as soon as we count to ten. One…” Count the food on the plate, or name the quantity.
Montessori is one of the non-counting options, and you can buy or make Montessori materials if they work for your kid. (I spent a year of my life making Montessori materials only to discover that does not work for my child. Maybe her younger siblings will use them!)
If you’ve got the money, you can buy the book of RightStart Level A (just the book, not the kit) for ideas of another non-counting option. RightStart has you split everything into groups of five and subitize up to five; much easier than teaching subitizing to 100, since any adult can subitize up to five! So if you poured out 13 Cheerios, you’d put them in groups of five: “Five, and another five; ducks will swim and dive, ten is five and five. That’s ten! And three more, that makes ten-and-three! (Which is 13!)” The “ducks” comment is from the song “Yellow is the Sun,” which you can find on YouTube and sing with your kid to learn how to subitize one group of five, then however more you have (up to another group of five). RightStart has you introduce counting words late. One through ten is normal, then you have ten-and-one (or ten-one), ten-and-two, all the way up to two-tens, two-tens-and-one (two-ten-one), etc. That’s why I recommend buying the book; you won’t be able to start the lessons yet (unless your LO has a better attention span than mine!) but the concepts are fabulous for early childhood math. You can also buy a cheap abacus at a store and paint it to match the RightStart one and introduce that; I didn’t try it that young, but it might work. Combining Right Start language and subitizing/grouping with Marshmallow Math ideas has been my choice of teaching. But choose for yourself. Just don’t give up! It’s worth it!
Oh, one more thing: math picture books! My daughter loves these. 'Little Quack" by Lauren Thompson is her all-time favorite book, and where she learned math up to 5. The MathStart books by Stuart J Murphy are great, but most libraries have a variety; get a new one every week and read it once a day for that week. Something will sink in!
My 3.5 year old is working on first grade math with ease. I taught him to subtitize first and I think it helps him with more rapid calculations. I didn’t even teach him counting until he was close to 3. And when I did I focused on bijection (one to one) correspondence rather than any rote counting.
Like mom2bee mentioned, I never had to teach him to count to 100. I taught him to count to 20 using numerals, then to skip count to 100 by 10s, also using the numeral and he was able to figure out the rest of the numbers. And it was equally easy to expand that into the millions by focusing on place value.
I really like Mom2bee’s program suggestion (post of July 10th): break it down into small(er) steps, and repeat, repeat, repeat and use real life examples and real objects to count, progressing slowly, but surely. Also use different ways of presenting the same concept (for example I love eeboo Pre-school Numbers Puzzle Pairs). I think LM works more on the subconscious level to associate numbers of items with certain numbers and to develop the ‘right brain’. If I recall correctly, my son didn’t start doing one to one correspondence reliably until about a year and a half (and I know your little one is slightly older, but every child, even advanced, has their own hurdles, which are all meant to be overcome). Now he is very good at math. Please don’t get discouraged…keep trying different ways, it will work. The only thing that will not work is giving up.
Rivka at acceleratededucation.blogspot.com or http://tinyurl.com/giftedboy
It’s also fine to meet her where she is, and give her what she needs, and not what someone else says she needs, or what some book said she could do if you just follow the formula they give. Manipulatives are what we use, and I strive for conceptualization with purposeful avoidance of performance anxiety or memorization. And even then, I see that each of my kids is unique, and just when I thought I had it figured out, the next one has her own game plan.
Abacus has been good for us. And not to worry: with or without super-early interventions, most kids still turn out largely according to their original blueprint, so long as we do no harm, so it takes a lot of pressure off parents to have all the answers before we even understand the questions. 
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First of all, I would like to apologize for not responding until now. I have moved house to a different state/city and it took me quite a while to get adapted to the place. Also I was feeling sick and tired with my second pregnancy and didn’t feel up at all to doing anything serious and new with maths. Now that I am feeling good again, I am ready to apply suggestions that I got from you all and I will let you know how it goes after a few months. Thank you all very much for your suggestions. I think I will continue to show LM because she does not reject it, and start putting efforts in including maths in everything we do together daily. I think she will enjoy some change and learning maths through real items.