What is the hurry? Why do we teach numbers up to 100 or even more to children at pre-primary? Is it not wrong?

Question

Ve noticed that teachers and parents are in a hurry to teach more and more numbers to pre-primary children. Are children at the age of 4 and 5 fully developed to grasp the number system. Numbers are well understood if children understand place value and at pre-primary level they are not prepared to understan that. Hence the question - what is the hurry? If you have a different opinion you are welcome to answer with the reasoning.

Answer 1

the more they know the more better for them.sme are late blommers,this will help 2 notice them  and put sme extra focus on them 2 help them develope.

Answer 2

If you mean teaching the numbers by having drills and memorizing for the sake of saying these numbers I agree with you. The children in my classrooms have always been introduced to numbers, letters, colors, and shapes. All usually know their shapes and colors by the end of the year. Most can count to ten or more. They like to count and they like to count one to one objects too. This does not mean that as a teacher I hurry them to do this. I only encourage and through play, art and stories they learn these things. Many of my children recognize the letters and numbers. If I ask them to bring two blocks and four stuffed animals to the table many can do it. Introduction is the key to learning and the children are learning how to learn and that learning is fun. Take the childs cue as to how much and what they want to learn.

Answer 3

I agree. But the hurry is that when you depend on our education system as it is...passing the child from one teacher to the next year after year, anything you can do to get them headstarted is beneficial to the next teacher. Not the child, but the system. They can't afford to allow children to learn at their own pace, because they have to teach all children the same thing at the same time. It's why I homeschool.

Have you read "Better Late than Early"? It's about reading, but same philosophy. It's been shown that children who read later are no worse off than children who learn early, because by age 12, it's really indecipherable as to who was reading when. Older children skip all the easy stories, and go straight into reading at grade level. I'm certain the same thing is true for math, we didn't need to create a curriculum to teach numbers to my girls, and at ages 8 and 9, they have learned algebraic concepts on their own.

Answer 4

u r correct

Answer 5

you are wrong...

the system in vogue is fine...

Answer 6

I teach in Montessori, working with children ages 2 1/2 to 6 years old.  When teaching the number system, I will expose a child to creating numbers and reading numerals from 0-9999, but only if a child seems ready for it.  We introduce the concepts of the larger numbers through concrete methods.  For example, doing a Hundred Board requires literally laying out 100 tiles in order.  The child can use a guide if necessary.  For a younger child who gets out the board but cannot read the numerals, the exercise turns into simply laying out 100 tiles to get a concrete feel for how many 100 is.

We also teach numbers and numerals using large numeral cards and concrete representations of 1, 10, 100, and 1000.  Other schools mimic these Golden beads with the Base Ten Blocks.  Even if the child cannot abstractly think of what 2578 is, he may be able to create the quantity by breaking down the number and using Golden Beads.  The large numeral cards also help the child with place value concepts.  The goal is not to make the children memorize these concepts, but to lay a foundation for later learning.  I have worked with public school teachers who have 4th graders who cannot understand place value.  When I showed them how the large card layout worked, they took that concept back to their classrooms, and found success.

This year I had children doing addition, multiplication, division, and subtraction in the thousands, using these manipulatives.  Again, this year's group was ready for these activities and demonstrated some understanding.  This was also the first year in 8 years of teaching that I had a small group ready to go so far in mathematics.  Next year's group probably will not go that far.  It's all about doing what each child is ready for.

Answer 7

I teach at a private Montessori school, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with teaching them numbers to 100.  While some children may not be able to fully grasp the concept at the age of four or five, some students can.  There are even a few five year olds at my school who can multiply using manipulatives.  I actually believe that NOT exposing children to numbers up to 100 would be cheating them out of learning more.  If they cannot grasp it, fine.  But other students can, and they should be exposed to it.

Answer 8

I'm in agreement with you that we hurry them into academics far too early and put way too much pressure on them to learn all that before they are ready.  But, you ask if they are prepared to understand those concepts of higher numbers--some are, and some aren't.  It varies from child to child.  The average child, probably not.  

In my opinion, the more opportunities we give preschool-age children to explore and play and learn from their experiences during that time, the better off they will be and the more prepared they will be to face a world of academics, when they are the right age (not 4 or 5).  As a society, we have placed too much emphasis on academics and not enough on real-life learning, and it's a shame.  Kids learn about real-life things through play, that's why play is the medium for a child's learning!  I wish more people understood that!

Answer 9

I understand what you mean! I am exactly the same..i believe chidlren need to understand numbers....SO many of my chidlren can count up to whatever amount but if i say "can u get me 3 pencils?" then bring back a handful! It really doesnt helpful if they can just say it as if counting is simply a rhyme!!!

I think they need to revise the whole foundation stage mathematics---althoug hte new EYFS curriculum I think has changed it to more problem solving and numeracy than simply counting!

Answer 10

Seems like a controversial topic, doesn't it?   In my experience, most 4 and 5 year olds have no problem learning numbers up to a hundred.  One of the main reasons why there are those that can't is because they haven't been exposed to it.  There are some states who are teaching simple algebra in preschool/Kindergarten...and they are having success with it.  Why?  Because preschoolers CAN do it!  My goal as an early childhood educator is to expose the children to as much as I can.  Though some may not be ready to take step forwards, because they haven't had the experiences that provide the foundation, the connections are being put in place and it will "click" sooner or later.  As for teaching place value... I have no problem introducing that in a preK program either.  My most recent 5 year old is doing double digit addition and subtraction and teaching him place value made it all fall into place.  They can do it...so why not expect them to?  It can all be taught informally and with fun.  The firmer the foundation of learning is...the easier it will be for them once they enter primary school.

Answer 11

We teach them up to the thousands, but we use tools to help them understand it.  

Our classroom has a 3 year age span, from 3-6.  The math area actually starts off in the sensorial area of the classroom.  The three year olds really enjoy exploring the sensorial materials and many of them lead into the math materials.  For example, we have a set of red rods.  The smallest is 10 cm long, the 2nd shortest is 20 cm long, etc.  The largest is 1 meter long.  This is a part of the sensorial area that is used to help the child understand the difference between "long" and "short."  

In the math area, we have the same material except that it is painted alternating colors of red and blue.  This is used to begin teaching the concepts of 1-10.  The child does not necessarily need to have good 1:1 correspondence to work with this material and that 1:1 correspondence can be developed while using this material.  So whether the child is ready or not for that, the child can at least begin to understand the relationships between the various numbers and quantities.  

We also have in the sensorial area a pink tower.  The tower is made up of 10 cubes.  The child carries each cube individually to the rug using two hands (even the small one).  The small one is 1 cubic cm and the largest is 10 cubic cm.  There are many ways to explore this material and the child gets a genuine feel for the materials we use in the math area to help them distinguish place value.  

Place value is determined after a lot of use in the sensorial and earlier math areas.  Once a child has a very clear concept of 0-9 and 1-10, we introduce the demonstration tray.  There are 2 demonstration trays.  Each tray consists of the same materials.

The first presentation tray:  The first material, sitting on the right of the tray, is a single golden bead.  Next to it, on the left, is a string of 10 beads held together in a straight line held together by a wire.  Next to that is a hundred square, which consists of 10 of the ten bars strung together with wire.  This makes up 10 square, or 100.  Next to that is a thousand cube.  This is 10 of the hundred squares put together to make 1000 (or 10 cube...10x10x10, if you want to think about it that way).  In the first tray, the child learns the names of each one after handling them and feeling the difference.  The child has already had a long time to feel these things in his or her senses, since the pink tower is one of the first materials the child has exposure to.  The smallest cube on the pink tower is 1/1000 of the largest cube.  So when they feel these things, there is very little confusion about the difference in size between the 1 bead and the thousand bead.

The second tray is similar, but has 10 unit beads, 10 ten bars, 10 hundred squares, and a thousand cube.  The child can build these materials on his own by laying them next to each other or on top of each other (in the case of making the 1000 cube).

Once they have a clear concept of that, they may move into materials such as the 45 bead layout, where they lay out all these beads in four rows.  It's easier to show you a picture, so here it is:

http://www.peacefulpathwaysmontessori.co...

You can also see many of the math materials I described in the background on the shelf, including the red and blue rods and 2nd demonstration tray.

The child can make a variety of numbers with this.  They might put the number cards together and practice saying the numbers.  The teacher might give them a number and they have to bring the beads that go along with that number.  The teacher might take some of the beads and ask the child to make the number and name it.  

So I say no....it's not inappropriate.  The children spend up to 1/2 hour to 45 minutes on a regular basis working with these materials because they love them so much.  If they love learning these things and we can give them a way to do it, why say it's not appropriate?  If we force them to do it, that would be different.

Answer 12

You didnot mention your country. In India, we consider 3-4 years as pre-primary age and 4-5 years as nursery age. My kid is 4 years old, has come in nursery in this session only a month ago and already knows numbers roughly upto 100. Although they were not taught to her in the School ! She learned them somehow at home. On the other hand, her cousin, 6 months younger to her, lives in the same house, also in the same school & standard, can count roughly upto 50.

In short I can say that today's children are exposed to a lot of information like never before. They are learning at super speed, from T.V., computers, newspapers, games and a lot more. They are smarter than we can imagine. It is very difficult to generalise how much is "Over Knowledge" for a kid. Different kids have different grasping power. I personally think that if they are ready to take the information, then give them.

Answer 13

I agree. While they may memorize the numbers, and even recognize the numerals, they really don't internalize the meaning of the numbers. In the meantime they are missing out on the opportunities to manipulate objects and develop real understanding. The problem is that more and more parents are demanding this nonsense and programs are pandering to them. There are also a lot of untrained people and misplaced elementary school teacher working in Early Childhood programs. Not enough people are reading Piaget these days.

Answer 14

no it is not wrong because if u dont teach childrin in primary school 100 and over they will not get some space to learn any thing and if they wernt any rules we would have been dead by not like my frienf alex.

Answer 15

Well, it depends upon the capacity of a particular child. If the child is interested and able to understood, why shouldn't it be taught to them? Montessori teaching methods are well suited for this. For primary levels, instead of making them just write on the papers, the children will be interested in using beads, etc. and will learn faster and better. But some of the schools in India, they just don't care about the children.

Answer 16

see learning numbers is the easiest part... all u gotta do is relate... i think this relation can be realised at the nursery level... even number names are simple to learn... i dont think its pressirising or anything... its just that the children themselves find it easy... its like when a child learns the table of ten he is all te more astonished by that of 11... thats y most kids themselves go ahead... atleast i did... :)

Answer 17

If Children like counting which they usually do, then they love big numbers so it is fine. I know that one to one correspondence is more important than counting to a random number but young children love to hear about big numbers; it fascinates them. When i asked the children in pre school how many seeds were in the jar their answers varied from 12 to one hundred million!! Actually counting them out to one hundred and seventy kept them entertained for some time and they loved it!!