Engines & Coaches: Double Digit Numbers

Jack's only math work consists of recognizing his numbers, and counting consecutively in correct order. Last term was wonderful. He is a flashcard hoarder, and he loved carrying around his 1-25 number cards with numbers on one side and animals on the other. By the end of the term the cards were cake to him, and we were counting to 30 with no skipping.

So I purchased a set that went from 1-50, and we've been dealing with a brick wall ever since. The problem is he is inconsistent in how he reads a double digit number. He'll call 34, 43 instead. Of course he aces numbers like 22, 33, 44, etc. He also aces 20, 30, 40 and 50. Just everything inbetween is read backwards. The frustration lies also in that with our first set of cards we had zero problems with 21-25, but all of a sudden there is confusion.

Just now approaching 4, there is no rush, but as a mother I find myself fighting back the knowledge of links between left-handedness and dyslexia. He is my train fanatic, so I tried explaining that the first number is the engine and the second number is the coach. That he needed to say the engine first. He got the concept, but still struggled with the delivery.

Today we may have had a breakthrough. Laying out the 20, 30, 40, and 50 card on the floor, I handed him a set of 20 cards. I explained that this was the train roundhouse and all of the lost engines needed to make it in the proper compartments of the round house. For example, all 20's engines needed to be laided in front of the 20's card. Jack was amused that his cards were lost, which motivated him to put them back in their correct locations. I noticed as we worked through the cards, a connection was beginning to set in. He still argued with me on a couple of cards insisting that a 23 card needed to go in the 30's slot because of the 3. But we didn't have nearly the same number of mistakes.

Fingers crossed for my little lefty.