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Is it ok to teach a child to add/subtract using fingers?
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lfab




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Nov 20 2015, 9:20 am
heightsmom wrote:
Counting on, using doubles and doubles plus one are not common core terms. They have been in use for at least 25 years. I taught grades 1-4 for over 20 years. Number lines are also great. Kids who have difficulty with number facts often rely on their fingers for years.


Oops. I had just never heard these terms before until my daughter brought home her common core math book so assumed they were terms related to it.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Nov 20 2015, 11:27 am
It is fine to use fingers at that age. You do want them to move past it gradually but it's a good strategy for the early years. I think one of the reasons people prefer counters is because some kids get dependent on the fingers and it's harder to wean them off it because they're always available.
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imasoftov




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 3:09 am
amother wrote:
Only works counting up to 10 though Wink

I used to pity people who can't count to 31 on a single hand, but now I just think, "four".
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PinkFridge




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 5:22 am
Not sure why seeker got a hug, that's what I was going to say.
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Rubber Ducky




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 5:49 am
ValleyMom wrote:
This is my 34 year of teaching Kindergarten/Pre-1st and I will tell you SINGAPORE MATH is the way to go when teaching beginning numeracy concepts. My students are brilliant and the foundation we are building is incredible. They know so many basic math facts- in their head!

I can ask :How can you make 6?
And I instantly get a ton of enthusiastic responses.
We do not use fingers- we use manipulative and everything is based on the ten-frame.

I urge you to research singapore math- your child will flourish.

I haven't heard of Singapore math before and looked it up.
It works by starting with concrete manipulatives (like poker chips, paper clips, beans), then moves to pictorial representations and bar graphs, and finally to numbers (symbols). Sounds like an excellent and pragmatic approach.

Helpful links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_math
http://www.amazon.com/Essentia.....1GEKD
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MiracleMama




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 6:38 am
ValleyMom wrote:
This is my 34 year of teaching Kindergarten/Pre-1st and I will tell you SINGAPORE MATH is the way to go when teaching beginning numeracy concepts. My students are brilliant and the foundation we are building is incredible. They know so many basic math facts- in their head!

I can ask :How can you make 6?
And I instantly get a ton of enthusiastic responses.
We do not use fingers- we use manipulative and everything is based on the ten-frame.

I urge you to research singapore math- your child will flourish.


Aren't fingers essentially manipulatives? What's the difference between counting beads or bears or fingers?
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amother
Copper


 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 8:08 am
MiracleMama wrote:
Aren't fingers essentially manipulatives? What's the difference between counting beads or bears or fingers?


Thank you! Thats my question. Whats the difference if they are both a method the child will be dependent on?
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nyer1




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 9:03 am
it's definitely okay. but it will get harder to do that as the math gets more complicated in higher grades
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 9:08 am
So curious why I got hugged. I have nothing against fingers and I actively teach kids effective ways to use them as needed, but there are differences between fingers and other manipulatives. Being attached to your body, they just don't move around as much and some kids don't visualize concepts as effectively. I tend to use fingers more as a strategy to help with computation rather than building concepts. Kids just seem to get the concepts better with objects. Also, as I mentioned before, fingers are habit forming and harder to wean from. You can easily move away the box of counters and say "now try it without these" and the child will. Say "now try it without fingers" and I bet you will find the child counting fingers in their lap. Moving the skill from concrete into conceptual is an important stage of learning.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 12:01 pm
PinkFridge wrote:
Not sure why seeker got a hug, that's what I was going to say.

You got one too just for agreeing with me. I guess our plight inspires a lot of sympathy. lol. Agree with seeker - poor you Wink Hug:
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HappytoHS




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 12:42 pm
amother wrote:
Thank you! Thats my question. Whats the difference if they are both a method the child will be dependent on?

Assuming a child will remain dependent on concrete manipulatives unless you take them away is like assuming a baby will never learn to walk without holding onto something for support unless you remove all support. You'd never attempt to skip the cruising stage with your emerging walker and you recognize that it's an important stage of development that naturally gives way to the next stage: letting go. Manipulatives, whether counters, rods, number lines, or fingers, are just the same and when a child has had enough unhindered practice with concrete manipulatives they will have acquired enough information and skill to let go. Trust the process and don't short circuit it by insisting that the child let go of her supports before she is ready.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 1:14 pm
You don't remove the supports before they're ready but you do gently guide them to try without supports. Learning math for many children is not as intuitive as learning to walk. They often simply don't realize that they have the option of doing it in their heads. Even if you tell them they don't believe you.

I think it's more like kids who self-soothe with pacifiers vs thumb-sucking. Most kids when you send them to school and leave the pacifier home, they just kind of internalize their self-comforting and manage just fine (some don't if they're not ready, but most progress fine. They're ready, they just need the structure to help them make the leap.) Whereas the kids with thumbs are often still going back to that at 6, 7 years old because it's a habit that is hard to break.

In my experience, most 9-year-olds aren't adding on their fingers because they're incapable of moving on, but because it's their instinctive habit and as long as they have their fingers there is no reason to break the habit. But in fact there is a lot to be gained by moving on.

But again, I don't feel that that's the main issue to determine whether or not fingers are an appropriate strategy. I'm just explaining that one factor because it's the one you're questioning. I also think that external manipulatives are more effective for concept building because of the movements you make while manipulating them.

for the record, I definitely encourage my 3-year-old to use her fingers for counting and developing early quantity concepts. My 5-year-old has different strengths so I don't advise fingers as often for her, but we do use them sometimes as a reminder/visual aid for the actual computation - of concepts that are already familiar.

Note also that many children who are shaky on the concepts don't use their fingers correctly either and you need to look out for that. Manipulatives and number lines are more useful for actually learning the concept and then fingers can be a next step to just practice it.
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HappytoHS




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 2:33 pm
seeker wrote:
You don't remove the supports before they're ready but you do gently guide them to try without supports. Learning math for many children is not as intuitive as learning to walk. They often simply don't realize that they have the option of doing it in their heads. Even if you tell them they don't believe you.

The natural process that I mean is the development from concrete to abstract thinking. If learning math is not as intuitive for many children as learning to walk it is often because they haven't been given enough practice with concrete math - really good manipulatives - before being expected to transition to abstract mathematical concepts - doing it in their heads. Manipulatives are certainly not a bad habit like thumb sucking. OP's dd is 6. It is far too early to even think in terms of reducing the use of manipulatives and doing so at this early concrete stage of brain development is likely to make math more difficult and less intuitive going forward.
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yogabird




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 5:34 pm
amother wrote:
Only works counting up to 10 though Wink

Not if you use "click and show" or similar method ("counting on"). Then it can work for adding a single digit to any other number.

Then the same technique can be used for adding 2 digits to 2 digits on paper.

But it is important for children to understand the concept first. Counting by definition is abstract. Counting objects is not. Counting on a number line is somewhere in between and a great link between the concrete and abstract.

Disclaimer: I have not read this thread.
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Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 22 2015, 5:56 pm
amother wrote:
The reason im asking is because to me using fingers is sort of a lazy way of doing math. Reminds me of a calculator. Will she outgrow and be able to do mental math later on?

I cant think of another effective way to teach her subtraction other than fingers. How can I teach her mental subtraction?


Use things you have around the house. Try making up stories with her dolls or stuffed animals.

Or use food, as in this thread: http://www.imamother.com/forum.....03765

I actually have very good memories of learning fractions by cutting cupcakes into quarters, thirds, etc. and then eating them all up!
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ComputerGranny




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jan 18 2016, 7:26 am
And then there are knuckles. Which also work for how many days in the month.
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HappytoHS




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Jul 30 2016, 2:26 pm
I just read this fascinating article by Stanford researchers on the importance of using fingers in math and immediately thought of this thread: http://www.theatlantic.com/edu.....8053/
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amother
Crimson


 

Post Sat, Jul 30 2016, 6:51 pm
I think it's ok to use fingers,
But teach them to count up from the first number
Let's say 8 + 4
You don't need to count the 8, just put out 4 fingers and count 9,10,11, 12.

In subtraction teach them to count up from the smaller number.
Let's say 8-4
You have four, start counting until you have 8
5,6,7,8. That's four fingers.

As far as concern only having 10 fingers to work with each place only has digits 0-9. By using the above method there's never a problem.

Don't know if all this makes sense written out.
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