3 year old can say 3 digit numbers

[Madwife888]

Hey,

so my 3 year old who will be turning 4 in a few months, has developed a fascination for numbers. He started to count up to 100, then recognising the numbers up to 100. Now he’s correctly identifying numbers up to 1000.

I am not a pushy parent at all, he doesn’t attend nursery yet and I have two average intelligence older kids. But I am wondering if I should be trying to encourage him/play more number related games ect or just leave hm to develop at his own pace. Has anyone else had a child with similar interests at this age?

I think at that age they often have what we think of odd interests. Numbers is quite common, there were a couple of children in my child’s nursery class who were like you described at this age. One was absolutely fascinated by the solar system and several with dinosaurs (they could name loads of them correctly!).

I remember asking my mum about this and she said I was fascinated by letters and I could read by three.

Children will develop at their own pace (especially at that age), I think you only need to be concerned if they aren’t reaching their milestones. I can’t say learning to read early has benefited me in any way, as pretty much everyone could do it too in a few years! I’d just let them get on with it and don’t make things a chore.

Can he count though? Remembering what the numbers are called and what order they come in is different from looking at the plate of cakes and saying 'There are 8 cakes'.

If you want to encourage maths skills at three, think about things like can he recognise two, three, four objects? Can he do it when the objects are in different patterns? Does he understand the concept of one more or less? Does he understand that a 2 and a 3 together make 5?

These concepts are far more important than being able to recognise large numerals.

If he enjoys number games, play them. If he doesn't, don't.

Sounds completely normal to me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That’s lovely he’s interested in numbers. Try playing games with him to see you can develop his concept of number- eg counting games, number bonds etc. I would say the concepts are more important than reading numbers into the thousands but it’s still nice he’s enjoying them. My son was similar with letters. Obsessed with recognising letters aged 2-both the sound and the letter name. I thought he was a genius. But he couldn’t actually blend cvc words together until he was almost 6 and at 13 refuses to read any book for fun 😆

It’s really not. Reception year is very focused on children recognising numbers to 10. My daughter has just finished year 1 and is highly capable and they’ve not done anything beyond 100 (not much beyond 20 to be honest). Reading 3 digit numbers correctly is more a y2 (age 6/7) level skill.

OP yes it is advanced. My daughter was also very ahead at that age (could count in 2s, 5s, 10s, name square numbers and explain why they were square etc). Unfortunately schools don’t really stretch them beyond their year group curriculum, so I wouldn’t go out of your way to challenge your child. My daughter has found school maths very boring the last 2 years.

As above, counting is made of a number of skills - number recognition is one of them, saying the numbers in order is another, and one-to-one correspondence is another, and the hardest (accurately counting things basically).

My son is like this and is starting school in a few weeks. He can also read (he's got Usbourne books about the Celts and Iron Age) and speak French. We are worried he will be really bored and we are trying to dial back what we teach him right now. We engage him for sure because we love stretching him and he likes learning but are now trying to work on emotions, body confidence and agility. We like him being a clever clogs but don't want him completely off the learning journey with his peers.

Thank you for your replies I will just let him be with it and try and build easier concepts with numbers if he is interested.
For context he can point to something that is like 3 for example and say ‘3 fish’ without counting them, knows 20 is more than 15 sort of thing, looks at a dice (another thing he loves!) and can say the number without counting. I think it’s numbers as a whole rather than he can just repeat a large number written down. He can count all the way up to 100, but he doesn’t know any addition yet other than the basic if he had 5 and needed one more he knows it’s 6. His love for numbers means he reads all the tickets in a super market, he knows all the local buses and walks along the street reading all the door numbers. He doesn’t stop talking 🤣

My eldest DS was like this and loved numbers and how they worked. One thing he enjoyed when he was your DS's age was doing jigsaws with the pattern face-down, as he liked seeing how the shapes fitted together. His inner-city state primary were very good and recognised his ability in reception. He was given extension activities and later on joined maths lessons in the year above even though he has an August birthday. (This was done without me asking, I think we were very lucky with his reception teacher, who was also the deputy head, and the headteacher.) He later went on to do a maths degree.

I think it's great to practise number bonds and times tables if he's interested as they are such an important foundation (we used to do this as a game when we were walking anywhere), but I think the real test comes later on as to whether children know when to apply the different techniques and how to think logically to solve a problem. For example: How many posts would be required for a fence 18m long, with posts 3m apart? (The answer is 7 because you need a post at the beginning and the end, but many children would think 6 because 18 divided by 3 is 6.) I hope that makes sense.

Good luck @Madwife888 , you obviously have a very bright little boy.

Sounds normal to me tbh!!

My just turned 2 year old can point to 3 fish and say 3 fish, so what you say doesn’t sound so unusual to me. Counting to 100 at 3 surely isn’t that crazy either? Some 3 year olds can read.

My DS was very similar at that age.
He could count up to 100 and beyond and recognise the numbers.He could also do simple addition and subtraction.
If we were out in the car or just walking and saw a bus he would read out the numbers eg, that’s a 2 and a 6, so 26.It was like having a bingo caller in tow lol.If he’s interested in number games then encourage him to play them and if he’s not then just let him explore numbers in his own way.
BTW, DS is now an accountant so ,still has a love of numbers

Sounds like my son. I would say encourage him, but don't be pushy about it. At this age, letting him lead you with what HE notices about numbers, will keep his enjoyment of them. While he is obviously advanced for his age, pushing him to be more advanced won't help him much, keeping him interested will. Numbers can lead on to other interesting finds - for instance noticing that our close doesn't have a 1 and telling the elderly neighbour, led to the neighbour telling us the story of the lorry knocking down number 1! Now my son is 12 and working around GCSE level in maths!