Not sure if this is the right board to post

[Senorita Tuna Fish]

Is it normal for a k'er to use her fingers when adding and subtracting? She can't add or subtract without using them. Am i doing something wrong? Is there a way for her to get more "comfortable" with not using them or is this the right stage for her age and "grade"?

[LanaTron]

Kids that age need the concreteness that manipulatives provide, and the fingers are easy to manipulate! I was still counting on mine for a few addition facts in college calulus (like 7+5, 8+4)...I made a "B" anyway. :tongue_smilie:

 

Some feel that it is a "bad habit," and if you think that way, you could provide a different manipulative like pennies, or you can purchase manipulatives. I like the Right Start abacus, and it's the only manipulative any of my dc would touch (exept their fingers, of course).

[claire up north]

Not to worry...it's totally normal. Many kids continue doing this regularly up to about 3rd grade.:)

[missmoe]

Normal. You may want to provide other manuliplatives so she can work with numbers beyond 10 or 20(if she also counts her toes :D).

[mom2denj]

Ohyes, mine used thier fingers until probably 4th grade. It is perfectly normal.:)

[PeterPan]

Definitely get a RS abacus and their book "Activities for the ALAbacus" if you want to nip that habit. No finger counting here.

[Rhonda in TX]

I added on my fingers up through college and I have a degree in math. It drove my mom crazy!!! :)

 

I forced myself to quit at about age 30. It was just a habit I had gotten into. I wouldn't worry about a K'er doing it. At all.

[Amber in AUS]

You know you can achieve automatic number recognition with fingers without counting. Professor B math does a great job with that. My DD has never counted fingers (or any manipulatives), but she is one of a kind ;) I have been using Miquon with DS and he isn't counting either.

[Spy Car]

It's why I like Cuisenaire Rods and Miquon, because it helps children "conserve values" without counting. It's "normal" to count. Many methods encourage it, directly or indirectly, but it's a tendency I wanted to nip from the beginning. And it's worked.

 

That said, it is hardly unusual.

 

Bill

[sherry80]

My first grader does this.

[babysparkler]

Definitely get a RS abacus and their book "Activities for the ALAbacus" if you want to nip that habit. No finger counting here.

 

Rightstart is really helping for my 2nd grade finger-counting daughter :) She hasn't used her fingers in weeks!!!

[The Governess]

My Ker doesn't count on her fingers anymore, but sometimes I wonder if she is visualizing fingers in her head and counting them there instead. :D I wish I could see her mental process in action!

[Tracy]

I tried giving my dd all kinds of manipulatives--pennies, abacus, etc.--and she still likes to use her fingers. And for 11, she will use her nose, placing her fingers in a diamond around it. And then she will ask me if she can use my fingers when we get past 11. It is completely normal at this age.

[Jenn in Mo]

The goal is to have her visualizing in her head. Imagine children going through three stages: physically touching and seeing math through objects (or fingers,) seeing math via objects in the head, and then moving on to knowing the math. If they are still in the finger counting mode, I prefer to hold off on formal addition. I'm all for early learners, don't get me wrong. But I've found through using different methods with my kids through the years that when I've given them formal math while still in the counting mode, they took a lot longer to get through things. When I work on games and 'setting the table'-type questions for a couple months, they quickly catch up and even skip ahead.

 

It cracks me up that preschool workbooks focus on writing the numbers more than anything else. A child of 4 can do quite a bit of math long before her fingers are capable of writing neatly.

 

To help them "see" math, start with games like Candy Land and Sorry, counting each move. I set up a math corner for my girls to sort colored beads and such. A simple activity that would bore me to tears but that they seem to like is to match popcorn kernels to numbers written on cards. I have it set up two ways:

#1. I glued 1 kernel to an index card, 2 kernels to another card, 3 to another, and so on up to ten. Next, I wrote numbers on index cards cut in half - 0 thru 10. I set out the popcorn cards in random order and have the girls match the numerals to the kernels. This could be done with buttons or any old thing.

#2. Next I have blank cards that I set out and I place the numeral cards above them, first in consecutive order and then random. The girls take a bowl of popcorn kernels and place the correct number of kernels on the blank cards under the numeral cards, matching them up.

 

But the simplest, yet most effect math tool for any of my kids has been setting the table. How many of us are eating? Can you get that many forks? What if Grandma and Grandpa joined us? Then how many forks? What if Daddy had to work late? Then how many forks? And so on. Five minute math lesson that has them visualizing numbers in their head within just a couple weeks.

 

When they can do that without counting family members or forks, then I KNOW we're ready for the books. In fact, I just ordered R&S 1 workbooks for my 4 and 6 year old. They are both at the same level mathematically, for the moment. I won't push too hard.

 

I would agree, from everything I've researched that Rightstart is an excellent program for visualizing math. It's over my price-range and I already had so much material for R&S from an older borther or I'd be going that route.

[LanaTron]

I've only finally quit through teaching my dc Singapore math and learning to visualize the quantities and "making 10."