Pot of Gold

Sonshine is more or less proficient in counting the dollars, so we're moving on to counting coins.

First, i laid down a set of similar denominations on the table i.e. 5 cents. Sonshine counted them in 5s for 5 cents, 10s for 10 cents, 20s for 20 cents. This is easy when the child already knows to skip count.

After which, i randomly took out a set of coins and have him count. This require the child to know some basic addition. For the above & similar combinations, he has no problems calculating the coins.

However, he seems to get confused when i add in more coins of varying denominations. I found that he could count easily if we counted the larger amount first. I.e. count all the 20 cents, than 10 cents than 5 cents. He seems to get confuse if i mix it up, or if he is required to add randomly i.e. 5 cents add, 20 cents, etc. I think he knows to add in small digits only ie. 20 + 5 not, 5 +20, although he knows the two equations are the same, somehow he still gets confuse when counting the coins.

As you can see, i have opted out the 50 cents coin to keep things simple at the moment. When he becomes more confident, i'll add it in subsequently.