Math for a 1st Grader: Counting from 20 to 10

I thought of describing each day of homeschooling my daughter for at least two first weeks, but it's nearly impossible. In the evenings I have many preparations and housework to complete. I will try to be as descriptive as I can in my # Week of Homeschooling summaries.

In this post I want to talk about Counting from 20 to 10. 

When working on addition and especially subtraction with A. I noticed that she does really well adding and subtracting up to 10. Any problem requiring subtraction from a number above 10 and under 20 is really difficult for her. She can do it, but I can see her struggle. The main stumbling block here is inability to count backwards from 20.

I came up with what I think is a wonderful plan to help her overcome that barrier:

Each week I put together a worksheet subtracting from 11, then 12, and so on. We spent an entire week working on one number. She does additional math problems from other math workbooks, but every day there is one sheet that is the same.

On the first day she takes her time and subtracts at a struggling speed. On the second day she surprises herself how fast she could do it. On the third day I would let her color code Fact Family members. On the fourth day she does the same worksheet in no time.

It's really amazing how a little effort can transform a struggle into a concured problem!

Another thing I let her do daily is do a Connect the Dots worksheet. I would search in google images for Connect the Dots and find one that has numbers up to 20. I let connect the dots with a pencil the first time, starting from the last number and saying each number out-loud. Then, I let her do the same worksheet, the same technique, just with a marker. I tell her I can't see the pencil and that marker would show us better what the picture is :) 

In a few weeks I expect A. to count from 20 to 10 as fast as she does it from 10 to 0 (which is about 5 seconds :) ).

A. was happy to see herself in this worksheet :)