One Two Buckle My Shoe - Counting Numbers & Benefits

One Two Buckle My Show, the popular English nursery rhyme & counting is as old as late 18th Century. Around 1780, for the first time, it was heard in Massachusetts. However, the first published version of this traditional nursery rhyme is found in London in a children songs book called “Songs for the Nursery” that appeared in 1805.

The main purpose of the song is to teach kids how to count.  When first learning to count, a child counts by rote memorization. This means he will likely be able to say the names of the numbers from 1 through 10 simply because he has memorized the order of the words, “one, two three ... ten.” However, he likely does not yet understand that 6 is 2 more than 4, for example.

                       

Let us discuss certain methods that will help your child get better counting skills.

One-To-One Correspondence

When counting, the concept of “one-to-one correspondence” is the understanding that each object being counted represents “one more.”

It is highly likely that a child that even before understanding one -to- correspondence, he will count by rote memorization. When asked to count a small group of objects, he will likely count quickly through the numbers he has memorized and randomly touch the objects being counted instead of touching and counting each object just once.

For example, a child given five balls may automatically count aloud from 1 to 10 when asked to count the balls pointing to random beads as he proudly shows how well he can “count.”

Counting On

'Counting On' means continuously counting a new set of objects added to a previously counted group without recounting the entire group.

For example, give your child two oranges and ask him to count them. Later give him three more oranges. Counting on would involve your child using one-to-one correspondence method to the additional three oranges by counting “three, four, five” instead of starting again at one and recounting all five oranges.




Counting on is an important skill because it is time-consuming and impractical to recount a group of items each time additional pieces are added. Counting on is of great value, as it is very tedious, to recount a group of objects each time additional pieces are added.