Jordan has really struggled learning to count money.  She’s known coin value for a long time, but being able to switch back and forth counting by 25s, 5s, 10s, 1s, just made no sense at all to her.  We’ve played with real money, had real life experiences, done workbooks, read mathy story books, played games…. Nothing worked and I admit to spending a fair amount of time worrying about it.    It is one of those things that has made me envision her as an adult still unable to make simple financial transactions (I’m not the only one who catastrophizes this way am I?).   

Last week I was playing presto-chango with her.  A popular game in our house, though it seemed to be doing nothing to help her learn the skill of counting change.  I attempted again to explain and helped her count out all of her change, etc.   Still, it was like I was speaking Greek.   It got frustrating for both of us.

Last night she asked if we could play again.   So we set it up and get to the first time she needs to count change—She has a $1 bill and needs to pay $.60.  I helped her put the dollar in and counted out dimes 70, 80, 90 100 equals a dollar just like I always do.  Except this time she says “Oh! I get it!”   Then she proceeded to play the rest of the game counting out the change herself–a bit hesitantly and with some mistakes, but she definately “got” it. 

 Now I wonder, did some magical spark ignite in her brain or was the repitition building pathways, or….or….