How to teach a child numbers?

A child’s early learning journey includes the exciting task of teaching them numbers. It’s an exciting process full of learning and fresh discoveries. As they watch their child start to comprehend and engage with the world of numbers, parents may also find this to be a rewarding experience.

Since each child learns differently, it’s critical to approach the subject of numbers with tolerance and support. It’s beneficial to incorporate numbers into everyday activities rather than concentrating on memorization since this will make learning feel more organic and pleasurable.

Teaching numbers can become an enjoyable activity that fortifies your relationship with your child and establishes the groundwork for future math abilities if you approach it with the appropriate strategies and an optimistic outlook. Let’s look at some simple and entertaining ways to teach your kids numbers.

Basics: how to teach a child numbers?

Since every child is unique, you cannot use the same yardstick to evaluate all of them. It is always more accurate to assess a person’s acts and deeds. It is impossible to compare children with one another; instead, you must compare a child with himself, taking into account both his past and present selves.

Including games, hands-on activities, and everyday activities can make teaching numbers to a child enjoyable and easy. Learning can be made more interesting and relatable by playing counting games, singing number songs, and counting toys or snacks. It’s crucial to foster a love of numbers without feeling compelled by numbers by being patient, starting out slowly, and celebrating little victories.

How many years should the child know the numbers?

The answer to this question lies in Masaru Ibuka’s unique program for child development and his personal experience. Ibuka is a well-known Japanese businessman who founded Sony Corporation and served as its chief engineer. His publication’s title, "After three years it is too late," speaks for itself quite clearly. He is supported by all psychologists and educators in the belief that, up until the age of three, a child’s brain is so adaptable, free, inquisitive, and efficient that it would be criminal to not make the most of it.

Fascinating fact: a child can learn so much in as little as seven years, which is only equal to the amount of knowledge an adult gains in his whole lifetime after that.

When the child is three or even two years old, they can easily learn numbers and even letters if they have no trouble using the sign language and their parents are curious about the way and what their child lives.

We teach the little ones

• Therefore, we use soft toys-cyfras, poems about them both the score, and the child involuntarily becomes interested in the symbols unfamiliar to him.
• Wallpaper with numbers in a children"s room works well in this regard (a train with numbered carriages, animal houses on a forest street).
• Children love to sculpt, which means we play with plasticine and dough and sculpt digital signs. You can even bake cookies from dough.

A very interesting exercise is to become a little "Einstein" by learning numbers. If developmental lessons are given to children without causing psychological harm to them, it is easy to encourage them to take them at any age. Young children are particularly drawn to symbols, and if adults restrict their attention to apathy at most, then the child will endure a distressing experience with numbers until they are five or six years old. Adults need to keep in mind that teaching a child anything on time is essential. For example, a spoon is essential for dinner.

Education at 4 years old

Since a child is already in junior preschool at age 4, there are significantly greater expectations on his mental development than there were previously.

It’s time to put fine motor skills into action. The simplest way to accomplish this is while your child is engaged in their favorite activity, drawing.

The youngster will gain the ability to recognize numbers, connect them to a particular (specific) quantity, and sketch them on their own.

Drawing will help you best prepare your child for writing because:

• development of the small muscles of the hand;
• active formation of visual and motor images of each of the numbers.

Drawing stages:

1. several times the baby draws a large number;
2. draws smaller images.

Giving kids the chance to sketch with various colored materials is crucial because it will make the exercises more enjoyable.

Tasks like "tracks" help the development of visual-motor coordination and

• With multi-colored pencils, the child goes through a race track drawn on paper, confusing and winding. You need to not fly off the road at the turn.
• From cardboard or thick paper, cut out roads of complex shape and arrange the Formula 1 competitions, conducting small toy cars along the highway.

Additionally, this game will facilitate your child’s writing instruction.

It is best to give him tasks that will guarantee that his attention is developing, that logical thought is beginning, and that he is being forced to make unconventional decisions:

• We look at the number with the baby and try to find objects around that are at least somehow associated with the number in appearance (shape).
• We mold the number from salt dough, from plasticine, we lay it out with pasta, matches, we write on the asphalt, on the sand, on the snow.
• We read S. Ya. Marshak"s "Let"s Get Acquainted", we try to learn what we like.

Adults should be aware of the following while participating in this children’s activity:

• is the child sitting correctly (taking care of posture and vision);
• how he holds a brush, pencil, wax crayon, felt-tip pen;
• the child should always have enough materials for his favorite activity: albums, pencils, crayons, coloring books, stencils;
• All classes should be carried out only in a playful way and only if the baby is desired.

Classes at the age of 5-6 years

You can start closely communicating with the baby about numbers once you’ve got them comfortable with the process of forming any number.

He will be familiar with both the handwritten version—found in the notebooks of the family’s older children—and the printed version, which he will see in a newspaper, magazine, or book.

A child between the ages of 5 and 6 can be taught more carefully and intentionally because this is the middle preschool age and calls for adults to pay closer attention to the baby’s knowledge and skills:

• If the baby has no problems with the sign system, he easily remembers and quickly learns to recognize and recognize the graphic image of all ten numbers, and if there are, then it is difficult to remember some numbers and gets confused.
• Children with speech therapists have a mirror perception of numbers and this most often happens with numbers: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Certain digital signs need to be handled carefully:

• 3 – similar to the letter "Z" for preschoolers who have already befell the Russian alphabet.
• 4 – a printed image is perceived in two ways due to the variability in printing, and a written one is similar to the letter "Ч".
• 6 and 9 – it is difficult for children not to confuse them, because the graphic images of these numbers differ only in a 180° rotation around their own axis.

We teach numbers and figures correctly

Before attempting to explain numbers and figures to a child, adults should have a clear understanding of the distinctions between these two ideas.

• It is important not to confuse: a digit is a sign used to designate a number, a number is a value at which a count is made.
• You can draw a parallel with sounds and letters: sounds are what we hear and pronounce, and letters are symbols (icons) for indicating sounds in writing.
• Thus, letters make up the alphabet, and therefore numbers are also a kind of "alphabet", with the help of symbols you can write any number.

Similar to how words in a recording are made up of letters, numbers are made up of digits in their recording.

The Russian alphabet consists of just 33 letters, but you can create an endless number of words with them.

There are ten numbers that we have: 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, but you can create an infinite number with them. We will obtain the following number by adding 1 to the designated number each time.

In the notation, a single-digit number is indicated by each digit in a solo version (alone). When writing down two-digit numbers, one should use two signs (digits), when writing down three-digit numbers, three symbols (digits), and so forth.

Multi-digit numbers are those whose notation involves more than one digit.

Children must be clarified in order to prevent confusion:

• Among the numbers from 1 to 20, there are two groups: single-digit and double-digit.
• Numbers after 10 are formed as follows: we put one on the "dtsat" (ten) and get 11, we put two on the "dtsat" and get 12, and so on.
• We study 2,3,7,6,10 as a demonstration of the difference between single-digit and double-digit numbers, emphasizing that 10 is the smallest double-digit number, and 9 is the largest single-digit number.
• Numbers from 1 to 100 make up the first "hundred", but 100 is the smallest three-digit number.

Colors to help

Bright colors and shades are therapeutic for children’s psyches and can be considered a form of color therapy.

• bright colors always lift the mood and vitality;
• a box of 18 or 24 colored pencils will make the child feel more confident – he will have many colored helpers;
• bright colors have a positive effect on the unformed child"s psyche, the child"s fear of the new and unknown disappears.

Examples of how color diversity functions are provided below:

• The child will be happy to color both the large number and the picture to it. For example, to the "seven" – a drawn rainbow, to the "three" – a fairy-tale family of bears.
• Having studied the new number, let"s try to color the clothes of the characters in the children"s coloring book with the help of colored pencils, applying a "digital print" to it.

Counting materials

The format and manner in which information is presented will vary depending on which sensory—visual or auditory—is the primary and more developed in an individual.

It’s common knowledge that most people—and young children in particular—have naturally stronger visual analyzers. The adage "it is better to see once than to hear 100 times" is not untrue.

Youngsters are a unique audience that calls for strong visuals, uncommon methods, and enduring items. Their entire mental process is frequently uncontrollable. Adults must thus carefully prepare for classes in which a child is present.

Step	Description
Start with counting objects	Use everyday items like toys or fruits to show numbers.
Sing number songs	Engage your child with fun counting songs or rhymes.
Use number cards	Show cards with numbers and say them aloud together.
Incorporate numbers in daily tasks	Count steps, cars, or other things while going about your day.
Make learning playful	Use games, puzzles, and apps that focus on numbers.

Educating your child about numbers can be an enjoyable and fulfilling endeavor. Making it fun with games, regular activities, and lots of positive reinforcement is the key. Recall that kids learn best when they are involved and enjoying themselves.

Patience and consistency are crucial. Don’t rush the process; every child learns differently and at their own pace. To keep them motivated and enthusiastic about learning, recognize their small victories and celebrate their progress.

Making numbers a natural part of your everyday life will help your child build a solid foundation in mathematics. With practice, patience, and your help, they will become more comfortable and knowledgeable when handling numbers.

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