How’s Charlie Going?

If you’ve been following me for a while, you might remember I posted a photo of a little boy named Charlie, who was three at the time, and had been given one of my Sensory 100s Charts™️.

Charlie turns five this year and has started Prep.

According to the Australian Curriculum, by the end of Prep, children need to develop their Number Sense to 20.

This includes counting to 20 both forward and backwards, mastering one-to-one correspondence, understanding quantities to 20, numerals to 20, the role of ten and the functions of zero.

Truth be told, LOTS (and lots) of kids are transitioning to grade one, NOT meeting these benchmarks.

Recently, Charlie’s mum Clare, sent me a photo of Charlie in his Prep classroom.

This was the beginning of term 2 and she told me Charlie was counting BACKWARD from 20, assigning one spoken number to the correct numeral and quantity.

This is phenomenal for a few reasons. Firstly, even though it’s in the curriculum, getting Prep children to count backward even from five is a REALLY difficult thing to get children to do. Ask any teacher.

Secondly, in Kindy, it was bought to Clare’s attention Charlie might have a few delays and Clare has worked extremely hard to get Charlie up to speed. It hasn’t been an easy road for Charlie and to see him thriving with his understanding of Number brings me so much personal satisfaction and respect for Clare too.

Yours In Education,