Some people hate maths. Big numbers and being asked to manipulating them scares them. I, on the other hand, like maths. It’s logical, the same answer is correct every time, regardless of who asks, when, and why. This will appeal to many of the kids who get confused when, in “normal” life, people want you to answer differently in different situations, and you can’t figure out why or when.
If your kid is an Aspie, it might love numbers from the very beginning. Or not. So, liking them, of course we played number games…
Counting starts in the early rhyming games. Lots of kids knows the number series, the “one. two, three, four…” long before they know it’s numbers. But once they start realizing a numbername means there is a certain amount of something, it is time to play!
Most kids think at first that counting means giving names to objects.
If you put four raisins in front of the child, and count them, “one, two, three, four”, and then remove the last one, the kid will be able to tell you there are three left. BUT:
If instead you remove the first one, your kid my tell you there are four! Why? Number four is still there on the table! As long as the raisin called “four” is there, the “correct answer” is four, in their mind.
I tested something else, which also gives you a clue of your kids sense of numbers and magic.
Your kid may know that 2+3 equals 5.
So, lets test it!
Take a cup, cover it with a saucer. Let the kid count two raisins and put them in the cup. Next, tell them we will add three more… Without looking under the lid, let the kid count three more and drop them inside.
Now… How mny raisins are in the cup?
It’s interesting how a child who can add large numbers when you give them a question, can, at the same time, guess so freely at the result in the cup. It may be one. Or twenty! If your kid is fluent at “word math”, then doing the raisin game, both adding and subtracting from the hidden cup, my help them get a hang on the relationship between the wonderfully abstract world of numbers, and the world it represents!
Just dont TELL them they are worng. Just let them see how many were there. And eat them! Math tastes sweet!
