Faster than one at a time
Counting in Jumps
Counting in twos, fives or tens gets you there quicker — and builds times tables.
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Step 1 of 5
Counting one by one is slow.
To count twenty socks singly takes twenty steps and twenty chances to lose your place.
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Step 2 of 5
If things come in groups, jump by the group.
Socks come in pairs, so count 2, 4, 6, 8. Ten pairs takes ten steps instead of twenty, and you cannot lose a sock in the middle.
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Step 3 of 5
Fives and tens are the friendliest jumps.
Fingers come in fives and our number system runs on tens, so 5, 10, 15, 20 and 10, 20, 30 feel almost automatic.
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Step 4 of 5
Skip counting is a times table in disguise.
Counting 3, 6, 9, 12 is exactly the three times table. Every jump you land on is another multiple of three.
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Step 5 of 5
It shows you patterns as you go.
Count in fives and every answer ends in 5 or 0. Count in nines and the digits always add up to nine. The jumps reveal structure.
Clock faces are skip counting made physical — every number is a jump of five minutes.
The short version
Skip counting moves in equal jumps, which is faster than counting singly and builds the times tables.
Try it yourself
Count the fingers in a room by fives instead of ones. You will get there several times faster.
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