Number recognition. slow going.

Posted by lapazfarm on September 29th, 2006 filed in montessori, JBug

JBug and I are working on number recognition. I have to say it is slow going and a bit frustrating because it doesn’t seem to be “clicking” for her all that well. But we plug away in hopes that when the time is right, “her time”, all our practice will pay off. In the mean time we have fun with these vaguely familiar things called numbers.
Here is a simple “three part lesson” on number recognition we did yesterday:

1. Matching magnetic numbers on a white board: for this she simply had to match up the numbers in the basket with the numbers I placed in order on the white board.
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2. Building a “stair” with snap cubes: I made rods of lengths 1-10 with snap cubes. JBug had to arrange them into a stair. It took her awhile at first because she had to count the blocks on each rod. After she built it once and we took it apart for re-building she noticed that from now on all she had to do was match up the next rod which was one block longer and building went MUCH faster!

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3. Matching cubes with numbers:pretty self explanatory. She struggled with this a bit, so we will repeat soon.

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And that is where we stand with numbers!

4 Responses to “Number recognition. slow going.”

momof3feistykids Says:
September 30th, 2006 at 7:25 am
I like the magnetic numbers and cubes. I also like the way you used the Montessori “three part lesson” concept.

You wrote:
“But we plug away in hopes that when the time is right, “her time”, all our practice will pay off. In the mean time we have fun with these vaguely familiar things called numbers.”

That sounds SO much like my approach to “schooling.”
lapazfarm Says:
September 30th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
It’s really, I think, the only approach to have when they are this little. Otherwise you are just banging your head against the wall. Or, the “throwing marshmallows” analogy.
woodstone Says:
September 30th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
I had good luck teaching R numbers by making photo flash cards for each number, using the photo to connect the numeral to something concrete. I had some chunky wooden numerals that I “posed” next to the concrete cues for each number. For example, I took a picture of Granny and Papa citting together holding a numeral 2 (there are two of them) and a picture of R standing on her head by the numeral 6 (she was six at the time, loved to stand on her head, and I we thought it looked like the numeral 6 is standing on it’s head). It sounds a little convoluted, trying to explain it…but those cards really helped R with number recognition.
lapazfarm Says:
October 1st, 2006 at 6:54 am
I think that sounds like a wonderful idea! It makes alot of sense to connect the number with something familiar to the child- a “hook” to hang it on ,so to speak. I may give that a try! Thanks!