Awhile back, our neighbors gave us a wooden alphabet floor puzzle that their kids had outgrown. (I could not find the exact floor puzzle that they gave us, but just about any alphabet floor puzzle would work for this counting activity.)
Edison knew his alphabet, for the most part, but he would occasionally miss letters or get hung up on L.M.N.O.P.
The alphabet puzzle changed all of that. As he put it together, he would go back through every letter he had already put in place. This is what he sounded like:
“A…A B…A B C…A B C D…A B C D E…” And so on and so forth. It was mind-numbing to listen to, but he became a wiz with his alphabet.
What does the alphabet have to do with helping preschoolers learn to count?
I’m getting to that…
Edison had the same problem with counting. Sometimes, he would miss numbers in the high teens or get turned around once he hit 20. (Instead of 23, he might say 32.)
So, I flipped the puzzle around and put numbers on the other side. (I know it only goes to 26. But, everything follows a standard formula from 20 to 100, so it still works.)
Now, when he does the puzzle, he says:
“1…1 2…1 2 3…1 2 3 4…1 2 3 4 5…”
It wasn’t long before he was counting like a pro! Best of all, it was another use for the alphabet puzzle which he had pretty much grown out of.
If your preschooler is having trouble with higher numbers, I would totally try this counting activity.