Online Math Games

Children will pick up the number words that they hear being used around them.  They will imitate adults, chanting the number words they have absorbed.  At first, they will miss out numbers or get them in the wrong order, often becoming hesitant after "one, two, three".  You can help them along by counting all sorts of things in everyday life, such as parts of the body, people around the table at mealtime, the stairs as you walk up them, letters that have come through the letterbox and so on.  

• Counting Games
  A collection of online counting games to help young children learn basic math skills. These online counting games will help young children (age 2 to 6) get to grips with numbers.
  
  
• Place Value Games
  These place value games help children to learn about bigger numbers, with two or more digits.
  
  
• Addition Games
  This collection of online addition games will help children learn to add while they have fun.
  
  

Although memorising the number names and the correct sequence is of course a useful skill, simply chanting numbers in order is not counting - in order to count, you need something to count. Young children find this difficult, because as well as remembering the number names and the sequence, they have to remember to say just one number for each object they're counting (this means they have to go much more slowly than usual if they're used to just reciting the number names) and stop when they've counted them all.  It helps enormously if you encourage your child to touch each object in turn as they count, or better still move it.  It's easier to count the apples as you put them into the fruit bowl one by one.

Start with very small quantities when practicing counting to build their confidence.  Even if your child can recite the numbers correctly up to twenty, they may still struggle with the practical skill of counting five objects, and it's counting real objects that will help them to begin to develop a real understanding of what the numbers mean.

In school Reception class (age four to five), children will have lots of counting practice. They will also learn to recognise the numerals as well as begin to read the number words up to ten.  There is lots of emphasis on sequencing numbers, such as giving children cards with numbers on to put into order or hiding a number and seeing if the children can work out which one is missing.