Teaching the Teen Numbers

Some kids breeze through learning the teen numbers. They simply click. Others have a harder time with these numbers. They don't follow the verbal pattern of counting and that makes them HARD!  On top of that, number 17 sounds an awful lot like 70.  It's all very confusing.  Here are so helps for teaching those pesky teen numbers.

Numbers in the Teens Song

Mathwire

Marshmallow Counting Frames

New Zealand Teachers Tips

An Online Game

Montessori Math

Montessori Teen Board

A Pinterest Board FULL of Ideas

Starting with Money

Missy's newest endeavor is to master the art of money.  She's ten now, and needs to have this skill for adulthood!  Today we sat down and learned the names of the coins.  Missy's special learning style requires many, many multiple repetitions of facts before they are mastered, so we began with simple sorting.  I had her pour out all of her coins. I showed her each, a penny, a nickel, a dime and a quarter, one at a time. I named each president, not that I expect her to remember their names in this lesson, and we talked about the color, size and weight of each coin.  We noted which ones had smooth edges and which have a reeded edge.

I had her find a penny and declare, "I found a penny!" until she had separated each out into a pile.  Then we repeated it with nickels, dimes and quarters.  It took some time, but she was having fun and learning the name of each coin. After that, I held up random coins and had her say "That is a ______ and it's worth ____cents.".  After doing that for a while, I had her pul random coins from the pile, say their names and values and then drop them into the red cup we had nearby.  Our final activity was the funnest.  She closed her eyes, held out her hand and I dropped a coin or two into it.  She had to feel the coin and decide what coin it was and tell me before opening her eyes.  If she got it right, she got to add it to the cup.

She still wanted to play with the coins more, but it was time to wrap up the lesson. I try never to wear her out during a lesson, but stop when she's still enjoying herself. I let her go and let Jack and Troubles join in.  Since they know the coin names and values already, I just played a short game with them.  I had them close their eyes, hold out their hands and I dropped three or four coins in.  They felt the coins, added the values and declared their guess before opening their eyes and self-correcting.  They also attempted to add the value of ALL the coins.  Neither was able to do that, though.

I hope that if you have a child who has special needs, you are focusing on real-life skills rather than frustrating your child and yourself on math that they will not be using in their lives.  Missy works on counting, two and three digit addition and subtraction, reading a clock and money and until these are mastered, she doesn't need anything else!

Here are some helpful site for printables and games:
Simple Worksheets and Games
Lots of coin activities!
Interactive games

Learning Bursts

My daughter, Missy, is developmentally delayed.  She learns differently than all of my others, even her twin brother.  Over the years, I've discovered that she learns in fits and starts.  She'll learn new things, whether academic or physical, and be "open" to learning for a while.  Then she'll plateau for weeks at a time, not able to learn anything new, even struggling to remember what she had so recently learned.  Then, seemingly without reason, it's like a switch turns and she's back to learning.  I have begun calling these her "learning bursts".

During her academic plateau times, we simply review the basic things she knows.  We cement them into her brain. She reads the same phonics stories and does the same type of math over and over, and gets enough wrong, or needs enough help, that I know her brain is "off".  I continue in these times to read aloud rich literature and have her narrate.  She continues copy work and other hands on projects.  I continue having her sit in on lessons with siblings, even if she doesn't seem to be absorbing the information.  Then, suddenly, she starts getting pages done super fast, without help and reads her stories easily.  I know it's time to introduce new things.

During her most recent learning burst, I had her begin to do her math without the assistance of blocks.  It had taken her over half of a school year to master the use of blocks.  The last time I asked her to attempt problems without blocks she was unable to complete even the simplest of problems.  It was simply to much for her brain to take in.  This time, however, she easily accomplished it.  She did page after page, (asking for more!), and scored 100%.

Today I introduced subtraction.  I explained it and had her try without blocks.  Best to skip a step, right?  Well, that was too much, at least at first.  So she completed her page using blocks and got 100%!  We'll see what tomorrow brings.  I love learning bursts!

Cross Lateral Movements

I've been researching cross lateral movements to assist Missy, age 9.5, with her reading. She has learning challenges and I am hoping that these will help her recall the phonic sounds and how they blend into words. We've been using 100 Easy Lessons for a couple of years and it just isn't clicking with her.

When I first introduced Cross Lateral Clapping (think of "Miss Mary Mack"), she couldn't do it, even slowly. She had fun trying, though! After a few days of practice, it was if she'd been playing this game for years! I call her a few times a day now and just clap with her for a minute.

I looked up some more exercises to add to our play time. I found one idea on one site, another couple on another. Finally I found one blog that had lots of ideas in one place. What a resource! This week we will begin doing windmills and elbows-to-knees in the mornings.

I have also dropped 100 Easy Lessons for now and began using Progressive Phonics. We're doing the alphabet portion first, beginning with Alphabetti Book 1-1. It's enough challenge for her and she's enjoying it. She's mastered the first book, "Dod the Dog" and has moved on to "Dod and Bob". It's a nice blend of phonics and sight work and has accompanying copywork, coloring pages and other busywork to print off if you want.

She may not ever read "War and Peace" but I do want her to have basic reading skills. If sight reading is something that will help her, I am going to give it a try.