Saying the counting words to 20

When you reach for it

Before a child can count things, the counting words have to come out in the same order every time: one, two, three, all the way to twenty. This lesson is only the words, said aloud with claps, jumps and steps, with nothing to count yet. The hard part is past ten: eleven and twelve sound like no number before them, and thirteen and fifteen are not “threeteen” and “fiveteen”.

Each day below takes about ten minutes. Say the words with the child, never as a quiz, and let a wrong word be fixed by saying the right one together.

Day 1: The words to ten

You need: nothing but your hands and voice.

Clap and count together from one to ten, one clap for each word, slowly. Then try it loud, then in a whisper, then as a rocket launch (start at one and shout “ten!” at the end). The beat helps: one clap, one word, so no word gets rushed or dropped.

Now stop partway and let the child go on. Say “one, two, three, four” and pause. Ask, “What comes next? Keep going to ten.” Do this from different stopping places.

Practice.

1. Count to 10 with a clap on each word. Answer: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, with 10 claps.
2. “I say one, two, three. You go on to ten.” Answer: four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
3. What word comes right after six? Answer: seven.
4. What word comes right before nine? Answer: eight. Saying the words up to it, “seven, eight, nine”, lets the child find it.

Day 2: The tricky teens

You need: a space to jump in place.

Count from one to twenty with a small jump on each word. Most children are sure up to ten and then wobble. Slow down from ten on and say the teens as an echo: you say one word, the child says it back.

Point out the sounds, since they are what make the teens hard. Eleven and twelve are new words to learn by heart. Thirteen starts with “thir”, not “three”, and fifteen starts with “fif”, not “five”. The rest are easier: four-teen, six-teen, seven-teen, eigh-teen, nine-teen. Then twenty ends the count.

Practice.

1. Count from ten to fifteen. Answer: ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
2. What comes right after twelve? Answer: thirteen.
3. What comes right after fourteen? Answer: fifteen, said “fif-teen”.
4. Count from one to twenty with a jump on each word. Answer: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, with 20 jumps.
5. What comes right after nineteen? Answer: twenty.

Day 3: Starting from another number

You need: a number path of 20 squares on the floor (masking tape or chalk), or the one below drawn large on paper with a toy to move.

Counting does not have to start at one. Stand the child on a square, say its word together, and then step forward one square for each next word. The path makes “start here” something the child can stand on. Then try it with no path at all: “Start at five and count to ten” is said, not walked.

Ask, “If you start at six, what is the first new word you say?” (seven.) A child who must go back to one in a whisper before starting at six is still learning; a few days of walking the path helps.

Practice.

1. Start at three and count to nine. Answer: three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
2. Start at eight and count to fourteen. Answer: eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
3. Start at thirteen and count to twenty. Answer: thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.
4. Stand on 17 and step to the end of the path. Answer: eighteen, nineteen, twenty, three steps.

Day 4: Catch the slip

You need: a puppet or a stuffed toy that “counts” (you speak for it).

The puppet counts and sometimes gets it wrong. The child listens and calls “Stop!” at a wrong word, then says what the puppet should have said. Make the slips the real ones: a word left out, two words swapped, or a made-up teen. Sometimes let the puppet count perfectly, so the child must really listen.

A skipped word is like the frog in the picture: it jumps from four to six and never lands on five.

Practice.

1. Puppet: “one, two, three, four, six.” Answer: it skipped five.
2. Puppet: “ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen.” Answer: it skipped thirteen.
3. Puppet: “fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, seventeen, nineteen.” Answer: it swapped seventeen and eighteen; seventeen comes first.
4. Puppet: “eleven, twelve, threeteen.” Answer: the word is thirteen.
5. Puppet: “eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.” Answer: no slip; every word is right.

Exercises

Say each one aloud. There is no picture to look at.

1. Start at nine and count to sixteen.
2. The puppet counts: “fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty.” What went wrong?

Where this goes next

Once the words are steady, each word gets matched to one object, which is One-to-one correspondence, and then counting a set of objects up to twenty. Starting from a number other than one is the start of counting on. The teens get their meaning in teen numbers, and the words carry on past twenty in counting to one hundred.