SMILING DOG® Math

 

Link to video: TEACHING COUNTING—What Grownups Need to Know!

 

I'm just going to come right out and say this...When grownups teach children to count, they often forget, overlook, or simply don't know about several very important skills and steps.

 

And this matters... a lot!

 

Because this can be the difference between a child simply being able to count 1 – 2 – 3 and that child understanding counting in a way that provides the foundation for understanding math!

  

And if a child doesn't understand math, the only way to "do" math, including something as basic as 2 + 1 = 3, is endless, meaningless, tedious, memorization.

 

And if that's all math is to a child, it's likely that math anxiety is just around the corner, since that child won't be able to "do" any math they haven't already memorized.

 

Let's Not Do That!

 

Let's make sure the way a child is taught to count sets them up to learn, love, and understand math, and doesn't set them up for a lifetime of difficulty with math and math anxiety.

 

In this video you'll learn how to help a child understand counting in the way they'll need to understand math. Specifically, you'll learn: 

1. The key counting skills and understandings many grownups don't know about or often overlook. This includes subitizing— knowing a group's size without counting—and the Cardinal Principle—that the last number in a count tells us the group's size.
2. Why these are needed for a child to build a strong math foundation. 
3. A research-based approach for helping a child develop these critical skills and understandings.

 

If you are a parent, grandparent, caregiver, preschool teacher or kindergarten teacher who is teaching a child to count, this video is for you!

 

And if you are inspired by what you learn in this video, check out my Very Early MATH books. They are designed for you to use with your child to learn these critical math ideas:

• Very Early MATH: SET 1 (Subitizing)
• Very Early MATH: SET 2 (Learning How To Count/The Cardinal Principle)

 

Wishing you lots of fun helping children learn and love math!

 

 

Dr. Marty Epstein, PhD

 

Teach COUNTING "Right!"

Are you a preschool teacher, kindergarten teacher, parent, or caregiver who is teaching a child, or lots of children, to count? This video is for you! (Just click on the title above ... or right here!) 

 

It turns out that many children are taught to count in a way that they have no idea why they are counting. This is a problem, because a child won't be able to understand math if they don't also understand:

• WHY we count (Psst… to find the NUMBER that tells us the size of a GROUP)
• HOW counting tells us this information. (Psst…this process has a name—the Cardinal Principle. If you're not sure what this is or if you've never heard of it before … this video is perfect for you!)

Most grownups assume a child automatically learns these ideas when they learn to count 1-2-3-4-5 ... but they don't!

 

If a child doesn't understand these ideas by a certain early point, it makes understanding the math that follows close to impossible.

 

So, let's help children count in a way that lays the foundation needed to understand math! To accomplish that, in this video you'll learn:

• The 4 key math ideas a child needs to have already before they can learn and understand counting
• A research-based approach for linking these math ideas together into the understanding of counting a child needs to understand math.

 

Wishing you lots of fun helping little children learn and love math!

 

Marty Epstein (PhD Math Education)