Numicon - what can I do with it?

[anxiousanxiousness]

My lovely DP has bought some Numicon for DD who is starting school in September. I've had a look online and there are lots of ideas of what to do with it, but I'm not sure what's age appropriate.

Any ideas for how to start off gently without putting her off the idea completely?

I love numicon. It is a fab resource

Start with counting and matching until she is really confinent with the value of each piece.
Order pieces- initially 1-10 then extending so that she sees how teen etc numbers are made up and how this corresponds to how numbers are written.
Match piece to digit.
Look at 1 more and simple addition by putting the pieces together.

There is so much more but that’s how I’d start

Thank you. That's so obvious when you think about it but when you see so many potential ideas it's difficult to strip it back to the most obvious ones.

I think the initial counting will really help. DD can count to 25, but 15 often doesn't exist for her. I think laying it out visually will help her to stop jumping from 14 to 16.

She is good with basic addition and subtraction. I do think she'll grasp mathematical concepts fairly well, but she needs the basics of not missing a number for that to make sense!

Oh it's brilliant! I must say I use it though with all the books (teaching).

The Website has lots of ideas though and I bet if you go on Pinterest there's loads of ideas.

The key thing is to start by being able to recognise the plates without counting the holes - what ever stage of maths. So lots of arranging items in the same way eg 7 shells in the 7 pattern.

teach her to count on it touching each hole, a lot of children can count as in have memorised the order but have no idea what say 5 of something looks like. Then try using it to add 1 more, 2 more etc. Next step would be looking at different ways to make 10.

These are really good ideas. Thank you. I'm looking forward to trying them with her tomorrow (does that make me sound really sad?)

No not at all. My colleagues may have laughed at my excitement about a shiny, new box of numicon. Woe betide anyone who borrows it and sends it back in the wrong places or with a piece missing.
Once she is automatic on the values, and if she is already good with basic addition and subtraction, then I would try wording your questions differently and in more problem solving ways
Eg
Give her a piece and ask her how many different ways there are to make that total. Can she make the total by adding 3 different numbers? 4?
Instead of what is 2+3 say- I have 2 what do I need to add to make 5?

You can put it onto a balance (scales) to show that values are the same as they are weighted so the side with more will go down and you can show that values are the same as they will balance e.g a 5 on one side and a 3+2 on the other.

It’s also brilliant for introducing basic multiplication e.g. how many is 3 lots of 2? Or how many eyes on three people?

Sorry I’m getting carried away, I will stop now.

Haha. Not at all. I loved maths as a child and still list algebra as an interest on my CV

It's really lovely as my partner has only recently been introduced to the DC and I have been talking to him about how well she's doing with numbers and he said he would order so stuff. He ordered the Numicon, some polydrons and multilink cubes (he's a teacher). He's coming over on Monday and said we will play with the Numicon.

Just to clarify, DC will be there too! It won't just be me and him playing with the Numicon!

Ha, visions of a hot date with Numicon under candle lit dinner 😂

Slightly hijacking sorry but I’ve thought about getting it a few times - what age would you use it up to (DC 6,4,2 here but I’m not sure if they’ve used it in year 1)?
Also, any recommendions for which set? Which one did your DP buy OP?

It was this one that he bought.

DD said that they have some at her school, she'd seen it when she went to visit for a settling in session.

I was saying to my Mum that when I was at school you could never buy these kind of things to have at home, we would only be able to do it at school, but now that you can easily buy things online we can use it to support what she'll learn at school.

It's a great resource. Have a look at you tube. They have so many great ideas.

www.youtube.com/results?search_query=numicon+

Also, picking up small objects eg beads with the thumb and forefinger or tweezers and counting them into the holes is great for fine motor development.

They do do a home pack actually with a set of plates and various other bits and possibly a work book or similar.