Adding numbers up to 10: what helps a 5-year-old
Adding is putting two groups together and counting the whole. Children move through three stages, and knowing which one yours is at makes practice easy.
The idea
3 + 2 means a group of three and a group of two, together. Children get there in three stages. First they count everything from one: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5". Then they count on from the bigger number: "3… 4, 5". Finally they just see it: three and two is five. Each stage is right; the later ones are faster.
Where kids get stuck
- Counting on is the big step. A child who still counts from one every time isn't behind, just earlier on the path. Pushing them to memorise sums before this step tends to backfire.
- Small groups should be seen without counting: 2, 3, 4 at a glance. Dice and dominoes train this.
- Order doesn't matter (2 + 3 is 3 + 2), and that is not obvious to a five-year-old until they have seen it a few times.
Try it at home
Two bowls of real things: grapes, blocks, coins. "How many altogether?" Later, cover one bowl after they have counted it, and ask again: that invites counting on. An egg box cut down to ten cups makes a ten-frame; filling it shows why 7 + 3 is a tidy ten.