The excitement felt when a child learns to count to 100 is often quickly dulled with the realisation that counting past 100 is a little trickier. Most number charts stop at 100, meaning the exposure children have beyond that is limited.
It’s natural for children who can count past 100 to stumble at 109 and jump forward to 200 from that point. Understanding the difference between ones, tens and hundreds actually takes some serious brainpower.
Like many concepts in maths, repeated exposure will help solidify the understanding. There are a number of games specifically designed to help children overcome these conceptual misunderstandings.
 | The 1-120 Jigsaw Puzzles is one such product. The four jigsaw puzzles included all show the numbers from 1-120 in a grid format. All but one of the puzzles have some numbers missing which require children to apply their knowledge of number sequencing to 120. |
It’s important to challenge children as they learn, but working with games that are too hard for them is just no fun. The puzzle showing all numbers is a great starting point, and as children become more comfortable they can progress to a harder one with fewer numbers visible.
| Another product, Skip Counting Jigsaw Puzzles introduces children to even larger numbers. This set also contains four different jigsaws. The counting by twos puzzle goes to 238, the counting by threes to 357 and counting by fives to 595. These puzzles help children visualise the patterns and count in multiples. |  |
 | Once children have grasped counting beyond 120, more advanced products can be of assistance, such as Number Expanders. These help children understand the different ways whole numbers from zero to 9999 can be named. |
