Welcome back to Azy Reading Journey website, where our goal is to make learning fun. It is always pleasure to see you. I hope you are holding up well as we continue to deal with the current situation. In this post, I will do my best to answer the question, how do I teach my 4 year old to recognize numbers?
First off, I do not have a 4 years old child, but I have a 4 years old grandson, Azy. My family members and I are teaching him how to read, and this website is to share about what we are doing and how Azy is doing.
So, based on that, I will be talking about some of the activities that we have used and are still using to help Azy to recognize numbers. You can go here to see some of the activities that we are doing.
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A 4 years old child is a preschooler, and in the last post I said there were many ways to teach number recognition to preschoolers. However, we have found that using games is the easiest and best way to do it. In addition, when we play games, Azy is more willing to do the activities.
After we have done several activities, we also allow Azy to choose the ones that he wants to do, and allowing him to choose have worked wonders, because then he is fully engaged and he wants to do those activities repeatedly.
When this happens, he does better with recognizing and identifying the numbers, and that also makes it easier for him to learn, and for us to teach.
There Are Many Ways To Teach Your 4 Year Old Numbers?
In the last post I talked about some of the activities that we use to teach Azy to recognize numbers and I will continue talking about other activities that we do. You can go here to see what I shared in the last post.
Bear in mind that you can use simple things and activities to teach your 4 year old to recognize numbers. In teaching Azy, we saw that was easier to teach numbers and counting at the same time. They go hand in hand and it was harder to teach one without the other.
We love to use magnetic letters and numbers, but you do not have to use them. You can write the numbers on paper and cut them out. Cardboards and sticky notes can also be used. Think about starting out by counting things that your child is familiar with. We teach Azy to count his fingers, toes hands feet, water bottles, snacks and so on. Keep it simple
Azy loves some activities more than others, so we do the ones that he prefers. He loves doing activities with LeapFrog DVDS, flash cards, magnetic numbers, toys such as farm animals, dinosaurs, mega bloks, train set and cars.
Activities That Can Teach Number Recognition
I talked about activities using LeapFrog DVDS, numbers flash cards and magnetic numbers in the last post, and in this post, I will talk about activities with:
• Mega Bloks And Dinosaurs
• Toy Cars and Train Tracks
◊◊ Mega Bloks And Dinosaurs: Most of the activities that we do are played as games. This is because our goal is to keeping learning interesting and fun. So, we are always looking for activities that will catch and hold Azy’s attention.
He loves, to play, so there were times when he would lose focus, especially if the activity was slow.
Azy loves to play with his mega bloks and dinosaurs, so we started to add them to the numbers and counting activities and he loves these activities.
The mega bloks and dinosaurs’ activities are among his favorites. In doing these activities, we include a double-sided learning board or tray, magnetic numbers and flash cards.
First, we placed the magnetic numbers on the double-sided learning board or tray, then we helped Azy to count the bloks. After that, we helped him to identify the magnetic number that corresponds with the number of bloks that he had counted.
The numbers flash cards are also used to match the number of bloks that were counted. Azy then puts the magnetic numbers on the respective flash cards. Sometimes, we do not use the flash cards.
Activities with dinosaurs include double-sided learning board or tray, magnetic numbers and flash cards as well, and we follow the same steps.
In doing the activity using the dinosaurs, we are actually repeating the lesson, but doing it slightly different. Therefore, we are reinforcing what was taught with the mega bloks, and this helps Azy with recognition and identifying the numbers, as well as with counting.
Do Activities That Your Child Enjoys
Since, Azy loves to do these activities, we do them often. Go here to see more about the activities with dinosaurs, plus other activities.
In the video below you will see Azy counting dinosaurs and identifying numbers.
◊◊ Toy Cars and Train Tracks: Like the mega bloks and dinosaurs, Azy also loves playing with his toy cars and train, and choosing to use them in helping him learn number recognition and counting was a great idea.
As mentioned above, we love to use magnetic letters and numbers so they are used in most of the activities that we do with Azy.
Toy car activities are done with magnetic numbers and flash card. The games that we play are similar to the ones for the mega bloks and dinosaurs.
Recently, we started doing some hands-on activities. We started off with a poster board with letters, numbers and shapes. The goal is to test Azy’s knowledge to see how much he is learning, and the cars are used to locate the letters. For example, he rolled a foam block and then find the letter. You can read more about it here.
In regards to the train tracks, Azy loves to count the tracks when he is putting them together. This activity is done with only the train tracks and we do not use magnetic numbers or flash cards with this. He is also using the train tracks to make the letter “H” and a circle.
How To Engage 4 Year Old In Activities?
I hope you got some idea on how you can teach your 4 year old to recognize numbers. I talked about some of the activities that we are using to help Azy.
Considering that you can use many ways to help you child recognize numbers, start with activities that are simple.
Chances are, you already have many items at home that you can start with. Your 4 year old may even have toys that they play with on a daily basis.
Starting off with teaching the child to count might be easier. If you need more ideas to get you started you may find some here.
Thank you for taking the time to read about Azy’s reading journey, I hope you learned something from reading this post.
I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.
If you have any questions, go ahead and leave them. I will do my best to answer them.
If you like what you read, please like it and share it.
Thanks
Hello, my name is Jackie. My family members and I are teaching my grandson Azy to read and I am writing about the challenges and the joy that comes from doing so. My goal is to write articles that will encourage and help parents and others who want to do the same for their kids or other children. Thanks for travelling along with us. Blessings, Jackie
Hello Jackie,
I am looking forward to the day the grand baby becomes a preschooler… but I don’t want her to grow up too fast… she is so cute right now😯
I have always liked working with kids and the examples of counting techniques sound like great fun.
I have a nephew that loves counting his trains too. What is it about trains that are so cool… oh ya, I can remember being young and excited when I unwrapped the train set under the tree. 🤗
Keep up the good work and Loving your grand child 👶
Peace and gratitude,
Greg
Thanks Grey
Your grand baby must be a cutie indeed. It is such a blessings to have kids around. I understand what you mean in not wanting her to grow up too fast. Yes, using different counting techniques help us find the ones that works best Azy and make learning fun.
I am glad to hear that your nephew loves counting his trains too. Counting train tracks allows Azy to choose the activities that he likes. It also makes it easier for us to teach him, and is shows that children can learn from doing simple activities.
Nice to know that the post brought you down memory lane and you remembered unwrapping your train set at Christmas.
Thanks, we will continue doing our best with helping Azy, and I will continue loving him.
Peace and gratitude to you too.
Very informative article on teaching kids! I wonder if you know how to teach kids remembering vocabulary? Thank you!
Thanks Richard
Based on the response that we get from using various ways to teach Azy, we have found that using games is the best way to teach him.
If you are using an activity and the child is not responding well, think about how you can turn that activity into a game. You can also move on to another activity if the child is still not responding.
Changing an activity does not mean ending it. You can always come back to it later on. Read my post on How Using Games Increase Attention Span When Teaching Kids The Alphabet to see if you can get some ideas.
Having someone else do the activity with the child and pretending that they do not understand what they are doing might also work. We tried that with Azy, and he turned the teacher and was helping his auntie. You can check this post get a better understanding of what I am saying.
If you are using more than one activity, allow the child to chose the one that they want to do. That method works well for us too.
I hope that helps.
All the best