How to get my 5 year old to recognise numbers.

[sashangel]

My DD is doing very well at school (reception/foundation) and is has lots of friends. She is doing very well in literacy and is given extra lessons/work in this as she is very good with reading and spelling (comes home with 24 new spellings a week).
However, she is struggling with numbers. She can count to 100 no problem but cannot recognise numbers past 15. For example instead of saying twenty two (22) she will say two to two or for twenty seven (27) will say two to seven. I am finding it very frustrating as I know she is very bright and I want to help her to get it but I am struggling to help her.
I am worried that I have concentrated more on phonic cause I didn't understand it well and have let numeracy slide.
Does anyone have any ideas?

That sound like mispronunciation, she distinguished between the two numbers correctly.

Hi sashangel:

Several ideas come to mind:

First off can she write numbers 0 - 9?

If not - make sure she can - then make sure she can say them all if she sees them.

So if you wrote '4' on a sheet of paper - she'd say 4.

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Step 2: Can you DC count by 10s to 100?

10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100.
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Now this may seem odd, but 4-5 years old can be oddly logical creatures - I had to explain what the first number in 23 was doing - what it's job was.

So at the point we got into two digit numbers, I explained that each column represented special kinds of numbers.

The first column (at right) is the Units column - and that number there is for each unit (1 = 1 unit, 2 = 2 units, etc...) you have. The second column (the one on the left) is the tens column and numbers in this column indicate how many tens you have so the '2' in 23 = 2 tens, the 4 in 45 = 4 tens, etc...

At this point I introduced grapes (tens) and raisins (units):

I'd put 3 grapes and 4 raisins on a plate.
How many grapes do I have. DD2 would say 3. I'd explain that each grape = 10 - so if I have 3 grapes - how many tens do I have? (DD2 could count by 10 at this point). DD2 would answer 3 grapes = 3 tens = 30.

So we have 30 + 4 raisins. DD2 couldn't add 4 on in one jump at first, so we used to count by ones. We have 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 in total. Then maybe count by twos.

The grape / raisin thing comes into its own with addition/ subtraction especially when you have to carry or borrow. You can cash in a grape for 10 raisins or visa versa.

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As ever Woodland Junior School Maths Zone has some great place value games: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths - Click place value off the menu (right column - 2nd down under NUMBER SKILLS) try Dino Place value to start with. It will show a number - say 15 - and you have to select one 10 and 5 to make 15.

If you play the 'free' on Bead Numbers you can use it like an abacus - so your DC can see what placing beads in certain columns creates- and get the idea of hundreds - tens - unit columns.

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I have recently discovered that Oxford Owl has an early maths website (this is free by the way) aside from their wonderful reading site. You might like to try it out: www.oxfordowl.co.uk/welcome/for-home/maths-owl/maths.

They are apparently working on booklets/ videos for maths - in the same way they have how to help with reading at home on the reading section of their website. These are not out yet - but they say they're coming soon - so keep an eye out.

HTH

Have you had her eyes tested?

Oh golly stop stop stop....I'm a reception teacher and would NOT be at all concerned, she sounds ahead of most other children this age for maths. SLOW DOWN. It will all come eventually. Check with her teacher if they have tackled numbers above 15 yet (we are still working on recognising and ordering 1-10 in our class). If not, then it may be worth waiting until your daughter has covered them in class. She sounds extremely bright. She wont need her eyes tested if she can recognise numbers 1-15 and can read her words. Make sure that whatever you do at home is fun, practical, hands on real-life maths, rather than sit down and learn by rote.

Sounds absolutely fine. If you want to consolidate her sense of numbers, buy her some Lego. Seriously, that will do more to give her an instinctive sense of number and multiplication than any amount of early intervention by you.