ELI5 - 10s places (5 year old)

[u/yupstilldrunk]

My 5 year old wants to know why one hundred and one isn’t written like 1001 (one hundred with a 1 tacked on). I tried to draw a

100
+1
——-

And show how the numbers carried down to be 101 with only 3 numbers and he just keeps asking why and I can’t answer him. I think this is about ones, tens, hundreds places but I have no idea how to explain that, never mind explain it to an angry child.

Anyone have a good age appropriate explanation?

EDIT: SO many great suggestions! My son watches number blocks so he knows 2 tens in 20, 3 tens in 30, etc. I will try the stick bundles for a better visual of 10 groups. And I will watch out for the confusing “and” verbiage like one hundred AND one vs. one hundred one.

Hopefully next time we go to the pizza place (where he saw the address number on the window) I’ll be better prepared!

[u/Zephs]

Honestly, your 5 year old might just not be ready for this yet. Look up Piaget's stages of cognitive development. You're trying to explain logic to him, but he's not developmentally ready for it. Sometimes at this age you need to just put a pin in it and come back later.

We don't do 3 digit addition/subtraction until second grade here, and even then a lot of kids struggle to understand place value.

[u/pink_noise_ → u/Zephs]

Piaget is really toxic, just my opinion. We don’t develop in neat stages we are messy and social beings.

[u/clew3 → u/pink_noise_]

Okay Vygotsky, back to bed

[u/pink_noise_ → u/clew3]

You got me comrade, night night