Subtraction

I am also teaching Phoebe subtraction. I use all sorts of manipulatives, such as ice cream sticks, flash cards, toys etc, to guide her in counting the left overs. The numbers that I use do not exceed 10. For example, I will give her 10 ice cream sticks. And I will say, "How many ice cream sticks are there? (Phoebe counts and says 10). If 4 ice cream sticks are for Phoebe, how many ice cream sticks are for mommy?" She will try to cover 4 ice cream sticks with her hand and count the rest of the ice cream sticks. She may not count it correctly all the time but she gets better along the way.

In the video below, there were 3 flower windmill in the flash card. Phoebe covers all the flower windmill to signify that all 3 are for herself, then she will have no more left. I kept asking her, "How many is for Phoebe?" She should have said 3, I know that she wanted to keep all the flower windmill for herself. However, she didn't reply me but kept saying, "No more, no more." It may seem that she doesn't answer my question or does not understand my question but in actual fact, she does know what I am asking for. She has anticipated my next question and that is, "How many flower windmills will there be for Vera?" That's why she kept saying, "No more, no more (for Vera)."

Haha... It's either that, she could read my mind or that, we have done this so many times till she was familiar and could anticipate my questions. =)