Almost 4 year old likes numbers

[Opalfeet]

I'm sorry if this comes across as a 'stealth boast' it's not supposed to. My little boy is infatuated with numbers and is not particularly ahead on anything else. I'm just wondering where he should be and how far ahead he is. He can do his 2, 5, 6, 10s and 11 times tableas. He can add up different things and he rote learns quite a lot so he's probably not adding up. So he will say things like 1 plus 2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 5 plus 6 is 21 and he will say 4 times 4 plus 4 times 4 is 32.

He has done this off his own back really, initiated by himself. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to help him further...eg to actually add, substract properly- I think he's learning patterns etc at the moment.

Since he isn't 4 yet and not in school he shouldn't be anywhere and so you don't know how ahead he is. I don't think you need to do anything and what you have described seems totally normal and what my two were doing at that age. Mine were also repeating a lot from the number blocks show. No need to encourage anything, let him play. Learning will come soon enough.

Why shouldn't I encourage something he likes to do? I'm asking for advice on how to do that. He seems to have a thing for numbers. He can count over 100 and loves trying to add up etc so I'm wondering how to nurture that.

Does he actually have a firm grasp of counting and numbers? Eg would he have a grasp of '8'ness'? Not just rote learning counting. If you asked him to count several of an object could he easily do it? If not I'd start with that. And multiplying, does he understand that 2 times 6 is 2 groups of 6 rather than just learning it. My 3YO is the other way round. She's not got much interest in 'rote learning' patterns but understands the concepts very clearly. She's counted accurately since just turning 2, understands how to add and subtract if in the mood and will even do simple sums in her head. If I ask what 2 x 4 is for example she will count out 2 lots of 4 on her hands but has no interest in mwmorising that it's 8

I think your little one sounds ahead of what they need to be so I wouldn't feel any need to teach him anything. However, if you want to nurture it I would just find opportunities to discuss numbers in play eg 'lets count how many leaves you collected', playing shop and counting money out (it's also funny to give them the wrong amount of money as it makes them laugh and keeps them thinking) 'oh look this ladybird has 3 legs on each side, that's 2 lots of 3 which makes 6 etc etc. We also got a game for mine for Christmas. It's an orchard toys game where you have to add 2 numbers up to get to the top of a mountain and mine loves it. I'd just try and incorporate it into play and be led by him xx

@Jannt86 he has spontaneously counted his bricks into bags etc from a young age. He can reliably count objects up to 100, so he's counting objects rather than just counting up to 100. He encourage him to add up on his fingers and he's decided to use his toes too. I think he gets the concepts of adding up and multiplying. He's not too good at subtracting though, so perhaps I'll encourage that. We do lots in play and he is now starting to use all his toys as counting tools. Which is why I asked really, he probably spends 3/4 hours involved in number each day- starting from 20 mins each morning when he comes into bed and starts doing adding up. So I just though it might be nice to work on helping him a bit more with it, he seems to enjoy learning and is zipping along quite fast so I'd like to nurture it a bit.

Thanks, I have heard of orhard games, I might have a look at them, we have been playing bingo, but he has a short attention span when it comes to games 😂

We have literally tonnes of orchard toys jigsaws and games. They're fab and I'm sure very responsible for why my daughter is so good with jigsaws and numbers x