Recognizing values

Nugget is more than happy to count. She started by learning "one, two, tree!" because her dad would say that when pushing her on the swing. She slowly learned more numbers to the point that she counts to 10.

I'd been taking advantage of her interest in numbers to see what else I could teach her. But I wasn't getting anywhere. I soon realized that I needed to go to the very beginning -- helping her recognize that there's such a thing as different values. You have to know that one item is different from two items before you can start to name that difference.

So I made a matching game (shocking, I know). I put out 5 sets of cards, each with a different number of blue dots.


Sure enough, it was quickly obvious that she needed work in this area. She needed help with nearly all of the matches. We've pulled the cards out just a few times, but I think this is one of those areas where there's not a lot of teaching I can do -- her brain needs to hit a certain point for this idea to click in.

In the meantime, we'll have fun counting with her, and I'll try the cards occasionally. We'll get there.