Kindergarten or elementary teachers - a question?

[C.Ann]

Okay - my granddaughter is 5 years old and she is in Kindergarten.. Today when we went to pick up her Mom at the hospital we had to park on one end of the hospital and walk all the way to the other end through this VERRRRRRRRRRY long corridor! (Wouldn't surprise me if it was equivalent to a city block - or at least a half a block.)

The flooring in the corridor was tiles - and my DGD started counting each one as she stepped on them.. By the time she got to 500, she switched gears and started counting by hundreds as opposed to counting singly..

So - she's counting six hundred, seven hundred, eight hundred, nine hundred, TEN hundred, eleven hundred, twelve hundred, thirteen hundred, fourteen hundred, fifteen hundred, sixteen hundred, seventeen hundred, eighteen hundred, nineteen hundred, TWENTY hundred, etc., etc..

I "almost" stopped her when she said "ten hundred", "twenty hundred", "thirty hundred", etc. but I wasn't sure if it was something I should correct her on.. (I'm just amazed she can count so well!)

So the question is - should I have told her she needs to "switch" to one thousand, then back to hundreds, two thousand, then back to hundreds, etc., - because to her the whole object was to be counting by "hundreds" not "thousands"??

What would you have said? She loves to count things, so I'm sure it will come up again..

Thanks!

 

[Blueeyes101817]

i work at a day care center..my classroom last year was 4 year olds..and they woudl say that...so never really corrected them since they were counting so well...now some of the same kids are in the next level up, and they are correcting them more..just sort of steering them in the right direction!

 

[JESW]

My DD is also 5 and will be going to Kindergarten in the Fall. She also counts like that - twenty - ten instead of thirty and I just say the correct number after her and she gets it. I talk with her in a non-correcting voice so she doesn't feel bad and then stop.

Jill

 

[disykat]

I agree, you can just tell her that there's something interesting about the number that she called 10hundred and explain. No big deal if she keeps doing it "wrong" at that age though - she's obviously got the idea of counting by 100's. It sounds like she counts well!

In your case, where she could have been counting to relieve some stress of the occasion, I probably would have done as you did and ignored it.

 

[Disney Doll]

I think you did the right thing by ignoring that for the moment C.Ann. As disykat, with what's going on in her little life right now, that may have been a "coping mechanism"...something to keep her little mind busy so she wouldn't have time to worry about her mommy.

I am a firm believer that every minute of every day does not have to be a "learning experience" for children. Sometimes we just have to let them "be".

What a wonderful, insightful Grandma you are!!!!!!

 

[Cindy B]

If I remember right, I don't think kids get the concept that 10 hundred equals 1000 for a while. I personally wouldnt worry about this.

My daughters first grade class is just starting that concept. Carrying numbers, that numbers have different properties, and that 10 hundred can be 1000.

See, small children are used to 10.

Actually, if this doenst confuse anymore.. that in 6th grade, they go back to fifteen hundred for 1,500. We are doing a lot of dates in history class (ex. 1056 BCE versus AD1200). Since the students say year one thousand fifty six versus using the actual year 1056, it gets confusing. In histroy class we say it in date form.

I've been noticing in math class, this trend continues. The answer of 1,500 turns into 15 hundred as well. In that age, they do realize that those numbers are the same, so the math teacher doens't correct them.