Count on it

Yesterday, while I was driving with the kids to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Campster said, "Do you want to hear me count to a hundred?"  And she proceeded to count.

I guess it's not amazing that a 7-year-old would be able to count to one hundred.  But here's what struck me as wonderful - I didn't teach her it.  I actually have no idea how she learned it!

Last year, when we did our lists, Campster wanted to learn how to read, how to tell time, how to count money, and how to count to 100.  I got her some workbooks, since she enjoys learning that way, and she has done some work in them.  But most of her learning happened just from noticing people around her using numbers.  She will ask questions like, "how many more minutes until so-and-so gets here?"

Numbers are all around us, and kids are fascinated by them.  Sher-Bear likes to push the buttons in the elevator.  The higher the floor, the more numbers to learn.

Setting the table shows one-to-one correspondence.  "How many people are in our family?  How many plates do we need?  How many cups?  How many forks?"  My brother plays a variation on this with his family.   "How many ears are in the room?  How many eyes?  How many fingers?"

Money is a natural way for kids to learn about place value.  Pennies, dimes and dollars show units, tens and hundreds.  While we were at the Shedd Aquarium gift shop, each kid had their money and wanted to know, "Can I afford this?"  Rather than give them the answer, I showed them how to figure it out for themselves.  Jor Man practices multiplication in figuring out how many weeks it will take him to save up for something.

Wish you were here!