a few days ago, while driving mimi to Summer Fun at her preschool, mimi is counting in the car. she is counting by 100's, counting by 10's and counting by 5's. sometimes she skips a number and i gently remind her of the missing number, but generally she is doing quite well. she does this sometimes, random moments, just counts, although it had been awhile since the last time she counted out loud for the fun of it. and well, i may have been partially to blame for that happening.
a couple of months ago, mimi asked me why we dont write "one hundred fifty-four" like this: 100504, because in her mind 154 looked like one, five, four. i tried to tell her a little bit about place value and how it conserves how much you have to write for big numbers, etc. but she seemed confused, so that evening i hauled out a bag of mini marshmallows, several small cups, and a basket. we counted out the marshmallows and put them into groups of ten in the small cups, and then when we go to 100, we grouped it into the basket as 100. and i showed her how there was 100 in 1 basket, 50 marshmallows in 5 cups, and 4 single marshmallows sitting on the table. i told her about place value and how each place has a 'value' and each place starts with the smallest value on the right and goes higher each place to the left. by this point, mimi has her head down on the table and she's looking sad. i asked her what she was thinking and she says, mom, all i want is to eat a marshmallow. and then she begged to be allowed to leave the table.
i was left wondering if i should have used dried beans instead.
she hasnt asked me a single math related question since.
but this day, i was pleased to hear her back to counting and then surprised to hear her add counting by 2's to her reperatoire of counting. i asked her how she learned to do that and she says, "i just know. you know, it's really easy. it's like skipping a number and counting. you start with 2 and skip the 3, say the 4, and skip, and then say 6...like that! do you want to do it with me? it's easy, i'll teach you."
i had to smile.
and i let her teach me.
the marshmallows remained in the pantry, untouched.
a couple of months ago, mimi asked me why we dont write "one hundred fifty-four" like this: 100504, because in her mind 154 looked like one, five, four. i tried to tell her a little bit about place value and how it conserves how much you have to write for big numbers, etc. but she seemed confused, so that evening i hauled out a bag of mini marshmallows, several small cups, and a basket. we counted out the marshmallows and put them into groups of ten in the small cups, and then when we go to 100, we grouped it into the basket as 100. and i showed her how there was 100 in 1 basket, 50 marshmallows in 5 cups, and 4 single marshmallows sitting on the table. i told her about place value and how each place has a 'value' and each place starts with the smallest value on the right and goes higher each place to the left. by this point, mimi has her head down on the table and she's looking sad. i asked her what she was thinking and she says, mom, all i want is to eat a marshmallow. and then she begged to be allowed to leave the table.
i was left wondering if i should have used dried beans instead.
she hasnt asked me a single math related question since.
but this day, i was pleased to hear her back to counting and then surprised to hear her add counting by 2's to her reperatoire of counting. i asked her how she learned to do that and she says, "i just know. you know, it's really easy. it's like skipping a number and counting. you start with 2 and skip the 3, say the 4, and skip, and then say 6...like that! do you want to do it with me? it's easy, i'll teach you."
i had to smile.
and i let her teach me.
the marshmallows remained in the pantry, untouched.
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