Skip Counting | It’s More Than Just 2, 5 , and 10!



Most of you can count by 2s, 5s, and 10s, but how many of you can count by 3s, 7s, or 11s?
Even though I flunked out of math in high school, my kids were great in math. Why? Because I threw out the math books and insisted they learn each basic skill well before they moved on. No addition until they could count to 100, no subtraction until they could add a column of three four-digit numbers. We worked on subtraction until they could subtract three-digit numbers from four-digit numbers. Then before we worked on multiplication, we learned to skip count. I insisted they learn to skip count 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s before I introduced 2 x 2 = 4 and then continued all the way up to 15s before we were through. Skip counting is fun and gives a child a firm foundation to figure out multiplication problems they haven’t memorized.
One hands-on way to teach skip counting is to have your kids create necklaces that have sets of beads separated by a different color and shaped bead.
Have your child start skip counting by holding and counting the beads that are the same, but just moving the different beads. Then have her whisper “1” and shout “2”, whisper “3” and shout “4”, and so on. Once she has that down, have her just say “2”, “4” … while fingering the beads. When she can do that quickly, have her go backward.
My kids, both boys and girls, love these necklaces and wear them constantly while they are learning. We make them for all the smaller skip counting numbers. They get a little big when you get up into the 11s and 12s though 🙂

Add some gross motor to your skip counting by having your child create a hopscotch board with the number sets he is learning or jump rope while counting by 4s. There are also many skip counting songs online.

Point out any patterns as they are learning. Example: If you add together the tens digit and the ones digit of any number in the 3s count-by, they add up to 3, 6 or 9.

Once your child has mastered skip counting up to 5, you can introduce multiplication by counting on her fingers. If multiplying by 3s, have her figure out 3 x 3 by putting 3 fingers in the air and then wiggle or point to each finger while skip counting.

Happy skip counting!

God Bless You All

~Grama Sue





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