11, 12, 13, 14, 15 - Counting

As any parent knows, that group of numbers between 10 and 16 seem to be the most difficult for pre-schoolers to learn.  It's kinda like the "l-m-n-o-p" part of memorizing the alphabet.   The sounds always tend to get jumbled up in kids' brains.

Today, Luke and I were playing a game of inside Hide-and-Go-Seek (he wanted to play tag, "Come on, Mom, it's good exercise!" he even tried to bribe me -- didn't work), and he made the decision that we would count to 15.  

When it was my turn to hide, I heard him struggling through 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.   Then I had an idea...

I suggested that rather than count from 1-15, how about we just count from 11-15, 3 times.   At first he gave me one of those looks that only a pre-schooler can give, but after some convincing on my part, he decided to give it a try.   I counted first, loudly, so he could hear me from his favorite hiding place behind the curtain in the living room.  "11-12-13-14-15, 11-12-13-14-15, 11-12-13-14-15, Ready or not, here I come!"    I even told him I would be the counter and he could be the hider for a few times so he could listen to me count.

After finding him hiding behind the curtain, under the table, and in the bathroom closet, I told him it was my turn to hide and his turn to count.

11  -  12  -  13  -  14  -  15!

He did it!

Later, when we got tired of hide-and-go-seek, we were playing with some of his toy trucks.  We set them up to race, and counted to start the race:  11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - Go!

We pretended one was a spaceship taking off into outspace, and counted BACKWARD....15 - 14 - 13 - 12 -11 - BLASTOFF!  (That one was a bit trickier for him to master.)

So much of teaching pre-schoolers involves play AND repetition.   I'm still coming up with more ways to practice these five tricky numbers.   If you have any ideas or suggestions, please... leave a comment!

Enjoy!

~Lisa

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