In many scope and sequences for first grade, one of the math goals is to have the student be able to count, read and write to 100. Yesterday, DS and I were doing math and I asked him to read the problem. (It was 15 minus 8.) He couldn't read the number 15. He'll be 7 in January.

Instead of saying "twenty-eight" he'll say "two eight."

He does have a speech impediment, for instance he struggles with the number 13, saying it "fehteen" and the number 15 as "fihteen". For awhile he was counting "12, 14, 15, 16..." He struggles with 30's and 50's well: "Fehtee-one, fehtee-two" For 50's he says "fiddy one fiddy two..." Sixties are a problem as well. He's in speech therapy, too. I dunno why I typed that. I don't think there's a connection. Is there? lol

Man! We have a lot of work to do!! How could I let this go for so long?!!

I'm sorry you are stressed out right now!! Have you asked the speech therapist about the possible connection?

I know my DS is in public school but it is a really good one.

At the beginning of gr. one (he is 6) they tested their ability to get to 100 using words and writing. She said that 70% approx of the girls could do it at the start of gr. one and 40% of the boys. DS could do it but he is a number whiz for some reason. :rolleyes: must get that from DH not me. ;)

Point is... it happens! Work on it w/ him and the teacher suggested to us to have flashcards for practicing in the car for pronounciation. DS has a few things he can't say too for numbers. "Three" is "fwree" etc...

I'm sorry you are stressed out right now!! Have you asked the speech therapist about the possible connection?

Yes, I asked her. I was telling her he doesn't know his address beacuse we live on 34th Street. (He knows the house number, but it sounds like he's saying "fiddy fourth")

I'll just keep on trying!

I know my DS is in public school but it is a really good one.

At the beginning of gr. one (he is 6) they tested their ability to get to 100 using words and writing. She said that 70% approx of the girls could do it at the start of gr. one and 40% of the boys. DS could do it but he is a number whiz for some reason. :rolleyes: must get that from DH not me. ;)

Point is... it happens! Work on it w/ him and the teacher suggested to us to have flashcards for practicing in the car for pronounciation. DS has a few things he can't say too for numbers. "Three" is "fwree" etc...

Thank you for sharing that! I feel a little better!

I'd just stop the subtraction for a while and work on the numbers. I'm sure there is some kind of game you can make up for it.
If he likes to glue, maybe you could have the numbers 1-100 on little squares of paper and have him stick them onto a large sheet of paper in order. Then he could use the chart to practice reading them. You could make a bunch of number cards and play games with them such as memory.
You could write numbers, one per sheet of paper, and have him run to the number you call out. Have him set them up in order and when he's done have him jump from number to number saying the name.

Just some ideas off the top of my head.

My ds used to do the same thing last year ~ saying 28 was two-eight or sometimes he would add them up and say 10. I think just doing different activities with numbers like Ann posted are what got him more comfortable and a better understanding of the numbers. Also we have the MUS blocks and having him see the 2 ten blocks plus 8 ones blocks really helped him to understand exactly what 28 was. Repetition was really important in getting it into my ds's brain.:)


You could write numbers, one per sheet of paper, and have him run to the number you call out. Have him set them up in order and when he's done have him jump from number to number saying the name.

I used to do this sometimes with my ds and he really loved it.

I had a fun way of teaching Annabelle how to count. The first one was counting swings on the swing set. Annabelle loves to swing, and I'd push her to the count of 100, which she had to count with me. We counted stairs up to the playground (42!) and the like.

We also do "Mama Body Wrestling". It started out as counting to ten, Annabelle would "wrestle" me down and she's count me out. If she missed a number I'd 'manage" to wiggle away and count her out. Once she could count to 100 (on the swings) then we did skip counting (by 2s, 5s and 10s) for the wrestling. It's always fun and playful.

Since your son is going to be seven in January, he might be in Kindergarten at public school. Annabelle has an Aug 2000 birthday and was the youngest 2nd grader at school by several months. most 2nd graders were born in 1999.

I hope this helps :D

I honestly don't think that he's that far "behind". Homeschooled children simply don't have the need to learn all of these things in order by a certain date. Schooled children do (there are tests that they must take and other students who they must keep up with).

My son will also be 7 in January. He's having trouble learning to read, but knows a lot about a lot of things that other 7 year olds don't. We are interest-led here, basically unschoolers, I guess... we use Miquon Math (as a "fun thing to do", not as a "math book"), and often he'll just open it up and work on whatever he's interested in. So while he does not know 15-8 off the top of his head, he does know how to figure it out if there are 15 cookies in a box, and each of us (there are 4 in our family) eat 2 cookies, how many will be left for the next day, and will quickly decide that he needs his dibs on two cookies for the next day, because someone will only get one. If I wrote out a problem as 15-(4x2)/2, though, of course he'd have no clue. It's all perspective and what's important to them. ;)

Looking at the number 28 as two-eight is very logical! Does he understand place value? If not, then saying "two eight" or "twenty eight" doesn't matter... either way, it doesn't mean the 28-ness that it means to an adult, or to a child who understands what 28 really stands for (28 days might mean 4 paychecks or 2 paychecks, or 4 grocery shopping outings, or one menstrual cycle, or only three days left until the first of the month again, so I'd better make sure I have mortgage money ready, or three cents more than a quarter, or 4 church days, or any number of things!).

Maybe you're a "stick to the scope and sequence" type of gal, in which case probably none of this is making you feel better, LOL. Really, though, memorizing subtraction facts or how to say numbers properly (aside from the speech issue... I mean saying two-eight instead of twenty-eight) is not any indication of true understanding of how numbers work. Does that make sense?

I would mention it to the speech therapist, though, if you think it's the actual speech issue getting in the way, or some other learning difference/disability surfacing. From what you've said, it sounds like either expressing them verbally is not important to him (which might be a speech thing), or else he does not really understand place value and what the numbers stand for. If you can figure out which it is, that might help you help him. :)

Cyan and I play number war, a game we borrowed the idea from Sarah (SnugBug) who is my homeschool mentor. lol... She can now recognize every number from 1 - 100 with the exception of 11 - 16. lol!!

Anyhoo... number war works like this...

You take a set of small cards (think the back of discarded or out of date buisness cards) and write, very clearly, the numbers 1 - 100. Shuffle. You get half the deck and they get the other half. You each put down a card and the number that is higher wins. Just for ease and simplicity and to make the lesson as concrete as possible, I take a bowl of beans and put it in the middle of the table with two tea bag bowls (tiny bowls) in front of it. When she doesn't know which one is bigger we "count it out"... she puts her card number of beans in her bowl and I do the same. Usually you can "see" which one is bigger. I always ask her what the numbers are, and sometimes she says "2, 3... OH! 23!" and sometimes she gets it right off.... but it has helped SO much and the biggest part is she LOVES it. She loves playing number war, she even has asked Don to play it after he gets home from work. lol! So it is a good way to learn numbers.

PS I don't think you are at all "behind". I think you just haven't introduced that yet. Play a game of number war every day for a week and I bet he will be "caught up"... I don't think it is his mind, or his speech, I think it is exposure. Does that make sense? I may be totally wrong, but I would try that first... plus... it's fun! :)

Val

PPS :hug:

We also used the hundred's chart and had our toys "jump" to a certain number. You can print out a hundred's chart from the computer if you don't have one.