Homeschooling Notes: Simple Tallying

I spent too much time trying to search ideas how to teach addition (and now subtraction) to my little learner. We already tried crafts in answering equations, used her toys in representing numbers, jumped on number line to solve math problems and other props but nothing seemed to be really useful in making Math easy for her. Well, jumping on a number line was effective but that won't be really ideal in a desk and chair setting. So I taught my little one the tallying technique, which I thought was a bit boring to learn numbers for my very playful toddler. Surprisingly, it worked. We've used tallying to solve math equations in different situations for the past weeks (shopping or Cashier pretend play, written seat works, board problems, etc.) and tallying is really working for her.

tallying

Why didn't I try this simple technique before? Argh. I sometimes (okay, often times) complicate things. Now, we can move on to subtraction. Yay.

Tallying