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The other day I just realized that my 8yo doesn't know how to count by twos! She can do 2,4,6,8, but then stops. We were doing math and I was showing her to count by twos instead of each one and she couldn't do it. I don't know how we missed that. She is doing great with 5's and 10's, but we need to work on 2's. Without spending money on a skip counting cd or something, does anyone have any fun suggestions for teaching her this? I never formally learned to skip count by 3's, 4's, etc. Do they do that on the cds? If so, maybe I should get something like that. She especially needs it now that multiplication is being introduced. Thanks.

psreit wrote:The other day I just realized that my 8yo doesn't know how to count by twos! She can do 2,4,6,8, but then stops. We were doing math and I was showing her to count by twos instead of each one and she couldn't do it. I don't know how we missed that. She is doing great with 5's and 10's, but we need to work on 2's. Without spending money on a skip counting cd or something, does anyone have any fun suggestions for teaching her this? I never formally learned to skip count by 3's, 4's, etc. Do they do that on the cds? If so, maybe I should get something like that. She especially needs it now that multiplication is being introduced. Thanks.

Hi, Pam!

This very same thing happened to me! We had done lots of skip counting by 5s and 10s, but I had not really done 2s. Here's what I did ... and it worked.

We practiced skip counting using a different voice for each one. Then we just practiced one (say, skip counting by 2s) several times a day until we got it, then we moved on. My children love skip counting this way!

For instance, here are some of the ways we counted.

2's: we just chanted the numbers, kinda like a cheerleading style
3's: robot voice (monotone, extended voice)
4's: pirate voice
5's: chanted
6's: baby bear voice (high pitch)
7's: Southern accent
8's: cow voice (I don't know how to explain this one! I guess each number sounds like a "moo!")
9's: British accent
10's: chanted
11's: little child voice
12's: stomach ache voice (pretending we feel sick because we ate a whole dozen doughnuts)

I know this probably sounds a little corny, but the different voices help my children to keep from getting them mixed up.

I hope this helps a little!

By the way, I do have a music skip counting CD that I bought, and it hasn't been helpful for us at all compared to the silly voices method!

This is where we use a 100's chart, so the child can understand the concept of what skipping counting is, before we introduce a sing song type of count. I take the chart and place a raisin on the 2, then have child count up 2 more from there and they place raisin (or m&m) so on and so forth. (we start out from 1-10 , and expand it by 10 more each few days) then the child lifts the raisin off each number and sings it as we go. then they can eat their pile of raisins at the end of session. When that is mastered we do the same for 3's , etc. etc.
I imagine there are endless modalities to use to teach this.. number lines with masking tape on floor, abacus beads, to name a few..
HTH
KK

Hi there!

I love the ideas the other mommas have presented!

Math-U-See has a fun CD with skip counting and other good mathematical songs on it! I just wanted to put this out there (not sure if you have youngers that will be coming up in K or First), but Math-U-See teaches skip counting at the Primer (K) and Alpha (1st) levels. HTH!

I agree that some type of visual so they understand what they are doing is very important. What we have done is incorporated it into our exercise time each morning. We have a little exercise routine that I go through with the boys and instead of counting by ones I count by 2's and 5's, as well as counting down from 20. That worked wonders for my son who was actually struggling with 5's more than 2's. Within 2 days he had it. The beauty of this method is you are getting exercise AND, when considering brain development and learning/memory, movement is an EXCELLENT method to learn with. Our younger son is catching it even though we are not formally doing any real math with him yet.

Thanks for all the ideas. I didn't really want to buy a cd because I don't have younger ones coming up to use it, unless my dil would want it for my grandchildren. I will try some of these methods. We did a hundred chart when she first started school. Then I put her in our Christian school for a solid year of K and somehow we missed this. All of these are great ideas. A variety is good. Thanks!

Well here is something free for you. I made skip counting videos for my kids this year and plan to make more in the future. We spent a few minutes each morning having a morning meeting which included bible study and memory work. I would sing these each day with the kids. http://www.youtube.com/user/wellroundedscholar/videos