Children learn to count by using objects, in the school room they count
the desks, the children, the number of cards, or blocks. The first
lessons are object-lessons dealing with objects which can be handled
and formed into groups. Digits are symbols which represent objects,
7+3=10, is an abbreviated form for 7 (Apples) and 3 (Apples) are 10
(Apples).
It is easier to teach addition and subtraction by the use of the
objects to add and to take away from. The realization of the process
comes by seeing the objects and the result of the change. The digits
become symbols for the objects that the child has been working with.
Counting boards are helpful in teaching children, for they enable you
to continue the visual process. All methods of teaching through the
visual processes should be continued as long as possible.
The child's interest in the problem will be stimulated if he deals with
objects, or things, and not with meaningless groups of figures. The
problem 127+323+417= , is a meaningless one and uninteresting, but if
you encourage him to think that this is the number of soldiers with
which a general is going out to meet an army of two thousand, then he
has some interest in finding out how many men the general really has to
meet the two thousand with. This makes the problem read thus, in his
mind.