Benefits of learning to skip count in the elementary grades
Counting is the core of basic mathematics. Once children learn to count by 1s, they are introduced to skip counting. This is counting by a number greater than one. It can be for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 and even for 20 or 100.
There are many benefits to learning it at the elementary levels. Children can use easy skip counting worksheets for homework. Once children know how to count by 2, 3, or higher numbers, this can help them learn many other math skills.
To be smarter in math, children need good mental arithmetic skills. Students who are proficient in this skill can easily add and subtract numbers. For example, to add 4 to 15, they don’t need to go up by 1, but they can go up by 4 to add in one step. This expands their power of imagination over number sense.
Similarly, children who are better at counting backwards can easily learn to subtract numbers. For example, if a student knows 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20; now it is very easy for this student to subtract 5 from 50 or any other number. Therefore, learning to count backwards is also a key math skill.
Multiplication is the next skill to learn after addition and subtraction. Again, students with excellent skip counting skills begin to learn their multiplication tables very quickly. Skip counting is multiplication, actually. If we look at counting by 2s; is 2 multiplication tables. Similarly, children learn the multiplication table of 5 or the multiplication table of 10 by omitting the numbers from 5 to 10 respectively.
Once children can multiply, they can use these skills to divide numbers. Therefore, it also helps children to learn division, indirectly. So all four math operations are simplified with this skill.
There is another very important elementary math topic called counting money. Counting nickels is jumping numbers by 5’s, similarly, it can help kids add dimes, quarters and fifty easily. Many times, the teacher or parents use the coins to teach children skip counting. This is a good idea, but counting coins is the next skill learned after skip counting.
Finally, it can be said that skip counting is a very important basic math skill. It’s worth spending some time learning in the lower grades (second grade math is the perfect time to learn it). Parents can print skip counting worksheets online and ask their children to practice this skill. Math is a learning-by-doing topic, once children learn any math skill, encourage them to practice it using worksheets on that topic.
