Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Toddler Numbers

This is a spin off from the toddler vocabulary thread. Kriston said she thought concept of 4 means being able to count 4 objects, rather than count to 4 by rote.

I'm curious what other people's experiences have been with numbers and counting.

DD (22 m.o.) couldn't count a week ago. Then one night DH taught her "one-two-three" on the swing. She came home from the park and suddenly counted to 10. What a surprise. I'm pretty sure she can really count to 4, not just rote (although I don't think she can really count to 10).

(This seems to be DD's M.O. With her language, she didn't say much, then went from 50 words at 18 months to hundreds at 21 months. She literally started rolling out 6-7 word sentences overnight. Same with shapes, and I think colors are "happening" right now, too.)

Did anyone else see an overnight change?

Re: numbers, if your toddler seemed to like numbers did you provide flashcards or other number games for them? I find I am deathly afraid of using flashcards, for fear of hot-housing.

I think the key is to follow a young child's lead. Flash cards are cheap, and you can leave them near the potty or the car seat and see if she shows any interest during her 'down time.' If there is a book that I wanted DS to read, but he didn't seem intersted - I would leave it in a place where he was sure to be bored, and therefore a bit more open to new things.
Grinity

My oldest dd now 7 basically said nothing until she was 2 and then started speaking in complete sentences. We used to joke that she could have spoken all along but just refused She's like that. She was similar with reading. All of sudden she could just do it. I think the speaking scenario is pretty common. Many kids just turn it on one day!

The first time our youngest did one-to-one counting... I think he was about 18 months or so. DW and I just happened to notice that he was sitting there counting buttons on the couch. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Fast forward to today (about 30 months old) and he can easily count to 20... probably higher. But he doesn't always look at four items and say "four". Even when he counts items he sometimes just counts for the sake of counting and doesn't always make the 1:1 association. So he has the sequence and pattern of numbers and letters. And he knows that numbers are used for counting and letters for reading and generally, but not always, has the right idea on 1:1 correspondence.

The older child (now 5.5yo) I don't remember exactly. I do recall that he could easily count to 100 by himself very early on and got the 1:1 correspondence pretty quickly. At the time I was pretty clueless that this was atypical.

Both boys, however, go through intense spirts of intellectual growth. Then they'll level of for a while. Usually just long enough for me to think "eh. just a precocious child." Then they'll hit another spirt. It's too early for me to say about DS2.5. He's clearly smart, but don't know if he's gifted. For the older boy, we're pretty convinced at this point.

Never did any flashcards. For the oldest, just before he was 5 he taught himself how to count by Roman Numerals from leafing through a chapter book. A yowie moment. So about that time I started getting some educational toys like number blocks, fraction blocks, shapes, etc. Between that and talking about numbers and such at the dinner table we just talked about topics that interested him. Patterns have been a huge hit.

So personally--this is just me--I wouldn't get flashcards. But I would get number cubes and perhaps other math-related toys. DS5.5 has a number line in his room and a multication chart. Just stuff *he* likes and enjoys. We try to create an environment where they boys have toys they can help them learn. And then just talk about things, answer questions, etc.

YMMV...

JB

I wouldn't worry about using cards if your children enjoy them; my ds did not really dig those so we don't have any lying around for dd to check out, but I think she would probably go for them. We do have some big dk number books that she likes. Progressively larger numbers of teddy bears, bugs, etc., nice dk photos to keep her interested.
Ds was more of an overnight changes type, dd seems pretty darn systematic. Maybe she's just verbalizing more of it.

Our DS4 is more verbal than mathy at this point, but I can remember precisely how old he was when he started counting to 20, and why. We were visiting relatives out of state and grandma bought a 50 cent toy for DS at a thrift shop - LeapFrog Count and Learn Math Desk, which got loads of use by DS for about 6 months. There was a "let's count" game -- let's count to 20. Count with me..." One of the games on the easy level included "find the number 14," "find the number that comes after ___," or "find the number that comes before ___" etc. Now that I think of it, there were also adding and subracting games that he never played - i should pull that out and see if he's interested now.

We did have some flashcards for the alphabet, because I knew he would like them (and he did). I say if you think your kid would like them, it's not hothousing. We probably won't do math flashcards, unless DS4 all of a sudden has more interest in math. (He did ask me out of the blue the other day if zero is an even number, so maybe he's wanting more than the nothing we're doing now!)

We have a fair amount of LeapFrog toys that were given to us as gifts (I'm not a huge fan of them... but that's more because I think they play on parent's fear like Baby Einstein toys... that's another issue altogether).

For a long time we used to play a puzzle game where I would "think of a number between 1 and 100. This number is even. This number is a square. This number is..." etc. That sort of thing. The other huge hit in our house is bathroom crayons. Both boys like to do "math" in the bath tub.

At any rate, I would only consider it hot housing if you're requiring your DD to do it versus making it available to her if she's interested. There have been plenty of times when I'd get something I thought DS would really dig just to find that he's not interested.

JB

i just noticed your location jb - awwwwww! how sweet. does that mean there's another bathtub math pupil coming soon?

I too am deathly afraid of flashcards. For the most part we let DD guide through play what she is learning. But I do have to say that since coming across the gifted term and reading up on it I am not so worried about over doing it because logically the brain is ready when the brain is ready and no amount of flashcards or instructions will change that. This said I also know from Ruf's book that teaching needs to be limited through instructions since it gives parents a false sense of accomplishments when that are directing the outcome. So I guess there is a tightrope we walk as we try to keep the kids moving in their knowledge but not over doing it. So I guess flashcards are okay as another form but it is the method in how you use them.