My DD is 5 and a half and just finished the equivalent of Year Reception.
In her school report, the teacher has noted that whilst she can count confidently to 30 (the target for this year), she is struggling to make the connection between the word and the written numbers. Example, we live at number 24. When I point to the number on our front door, she has no idea what number that is. Or, if you ask her to wrtie down number 18, she can't do it.
So, for a couple of weeks, every mornong over breakfast, I have been getting her to count pieces of penne pasta and then write down the number. Up to 30. But I can see she is just not getting it.
She counts really well but there's a disconnect between the spoken number and its corresponding written figure.
On other maths, she is doing fine. She loves adding and subtracting and we do lots of "if I gave you three sweeties and then gave you another five, how many would you have" tyoe things, which she loves and gets right every time.
How would you help a child make this connection? It's almost like she needs to learn her written numbers as she learnt the phonic sound / graphemes.....but how?
Disclaimer: we are abroad, so a completely different education system. So, I want / need to help my DD and I am not really asking for opinions of the wisdom or otherwise of that. Please don't tell me "she's still little, leave her be" or whatever. She loves doing little exercises at the kitchen table, requires no coaxing and I can see she is getting frustrated with not knowing these numbers.
Thx.