Addition for Rowan (4 yrs)

Rowan has been really into addition (and you know I love it!).

On our last big road trip, we spent about an hour playing the "adding game".  Rowan would say two numbers for me to add together (he usually chose the biggest numbers he could think of) and then I would say two numbers for him to add together.

I had to keep my number choices low (ie. add up to less than 10) so that he could add them up on his hands.  He did have a little trouble when I chose a number over 5, like say, "6 + 2". He didn't realize he could carry the extra 1 on the 6 over to his other hand and then put up two more fingers on that same hand.

That took a little coaching and I'm still not sure he got it because shortly after, the game turned into adding a number with an object, "Mom, what is 3 plus car?!" This game lasted another half hour or so.

I'm going to come right out and admit it. The number plus object game bothered me slightly.  OK, it bothered me a lot! It was like a nail on chalkboard.  I winced every single time they had an "equation" for me. But as long as they were entertained, I did what I could to pretend I was enjoying the game.

Then the other day when we went to lunch, the kids menu had an adding game.  Rowan was instantly intrigued, but because it had multiple numbers and some larger than 5 (one hand, remember), he was having trouble.

Then Rogér suggested drawing tally marks next to each number so that Rowan could count all the tally marks to add up the numbers.

I did the first tally marks and then Rowan took over, carefully drawing the correct number of lines next to each number.

This way, he was pretty easily able to add up the numbers.


~Sarah