counting beyond 10

6/5/12

Today, something amazing happen, my daughter was able to count beyond 10.  My husband and I have been teaching her how to count over the past few months.  She was beginning to get the hang of it.  We did not expect her be able to count beyond 10 this quickly.  She was playing with my color pencils and I decided to make an exercise out of it.  We started the usual way by counting up to 5 and continue to add more until we get to 10, but today she continue to add more pencils.  Eventually, she arranged all 18 pencils in a straight line.  Initially, she was having a hard time counting until she recognizes a pattern when you count beyond 10.  In English, when you count past 10, it becomes a totally different language until you get to sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen because you just add the -teen to what you know; where as eleven and twelve are on themselves and thirteen, fourteen and fifteen we use ordinal numbers for the prefix and add the -teen for the suffix.  In Vietnamese, counting beyond 10 is a much more easier concept.  When you get past 10 you just add the word 10 and the number you are counting.  For example, 12 will become 10 and 2 and 14 will be 10 and four and hence for.  With this type of pattern, she was able to understand that you will only have to add the prefix 10 before any number.  I was so proud of her for recognizing the pattern and was able to apply it.