Yesterday, while Mara was reviewing her 1 – 20 cards, she decided to keep counting. . . and counting . . . and counting. . .
By the time she counted to “58, 59. . . SIXTY!” I could see the little wheels in her head spinning and it was obvious that counting “ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy. . .” had finally “clicked” in her little mind!
She kept going until she reached “One hundred!” and she had counted perfectly!
What an exciting moment! Mara jumped off her stool and began shouting, “I can count to one hundred! Let’s call Daddy right now and tell him I can count to one hundred!”
Daniel has been very busy at work this week, so I knew that wouldn’t work out. But when he got home that night, she greeted him, “Daddy!!!! Guess what?! I can count to one hundred!”
And she did. Right then!
She counted for Daniel exactly as she had for me, right up until “Ninety-seven, ninety-eight. . .” and in her excitement, she completely skipped over “ninety-nine,” and shouted, “ONE HUNDRED!!!” Of course, leaping and jumping in the air. We were both laughing with delight.
The next day she told me she was going to write all the numbers from one to one hundred on the white erase board. She tried to quit a couple of times, but I encouraged her to stick it out. She is weaker on her number-writing than letter-writing, so I thought it would be good practice. She also reversed several of her numbers and transposed others. For example, on the “70’s” line, she had written “70 17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 97,” so I had her re-write that line. I think all this will work itself out as she gets more practice.
After “100,” she decided to one-up herself and write the numbers by hundreds up to “900.” She was quite pleased with herself. “Look! I wrote from 1 to 900!”
One of the joys of homeschooling is getting to be there and see her delight as she learns each new concept and skill!
