MamaMonday: Count

Another week, another theme.

Count. Have you ever listened to a child count? Do you wonder if they get the abstract idea of what those words mean. Do they know that 1 is one?

Rhayn learned to count to ten first in Spanish. She still can't count to twenty. She messes up at thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Sometimes she skips sixteen, too. Its odd. She can count to eternity past twenty, though. (Well she can count to one hundred at least.) She can add has been able to for a long time, she understands numbers.

Gwennie can count to ten, sort of. Its a jumble of sounds. She repeats them after her sister. She screams out "free, four, five!" for no reason. But if you start at one, she heads to ten easily. I wonder how she will be with numbers. Will they come easily to her, like they do to me.

Once I had a professor in college who explained numbers to me. I excelled in his class so I even took him a second semester. Easily earning an A even though I was out a few weeks due to having a baby. He was my ideal math instructor. I have had a lot of lets say not so great teachers. I once asked a math professor "Why?" and he stared at me blankly and said "It just does." Huh? It just does? I mean sure that is true, but a good professor would be able to point to the root of the problem and slowly work his (or her) way to the solution. He would be able to explain "why." Not "It just does." Because to have someone who can explain it the way that it makes sense TO YOU, makes all of the difference in how well you understand math.