Last updated 2026-09-09. Written by the TernQuest team. This guide is for parents of preschoolers and kindergartners who can count to 10 or 20 and need a plan to get the rest of the way to 100 without nightly drilling.
How do you teach a child to count to 100?
Direct answer: Count out loud together every day, in short bursts, and make the number sequence visible with a hundred chart so the child can see the pattern instead of memorizing a list. Teach counting by ones first, then counting by tens as a shortcut, then spend extra time on the two places children stumble: the teens and the decade transitions. Ten minutes a day is plenty.
Counting to 100 by ones and by tens is a kindergarten year-end expectation under California Common Core (see the full kindergarten math skills checklist for the rest). Your school's pacing may differ, but the order below is the one most classrooms use.
Quotable version: "Count to 30 by ones, then learn the tens to 100, then practice the transitions: 29-30, 39-40, and so on."
What is the 10-minute daily routine?
Direct answer: Three short parts: count out loud (rote), look at and use the hundred chart (pattern), and count a handful of real objects (meaning). Rotate the details but keep the shape the same so your child knows what is coming.
| Part | Minutes | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Count out loud | 3 | Count as high as they can, then you carry on 10 more together |
| Hundred chart | 4 | One chart game (below); the child points to each number as you both say it |
| Count objects | 3 | Count a set of real things, touching each one once |
3 + 4 + 3 = 10 minutes. Do it at the same time every day (after breakfast or before a bath) so it becomes a habit rather than a negotiation.
Part 1: counting out loud
Start where they are. If your child counts confidently to 14 and then falls apart, count to 14 together, then keep going yourself, slowly, and invite them to echo. The goal each day is to extend the confident range by a few numbers, not to reach 100.
Put the counting on something physical: steps up the stairs, swings on the swing, jumps on the trampoline. Movement plus counting sticks better than sitting still.
Part 2: the hundred chart
A hundred chart is a 10 by 10 grid with 1 in the top left and 100 in the bottom right. Print one or draw one on poster board. It does three jobs at once:
- It shows the ones digit repeating down every column.
- It shows the tens digit changing at each new row.
- It makes the decade transitions visible: 29 is at the end of a row, 30 starts the next.
Chart games that work at this age:
- Point and say. The child points to each square as you both count. Slow is fine.
- Cover and find. Cover a number with a coin and ask what is hiding.
- Fill in the gap. Write a row with a few numbers missing and have them fill in the blanks.
- Race to 100. Roll a die, move that many squares, say each number as you land on it. First to 100 wins.
Part 3: counting objects
Rote counting is not the same as knowing how many. Every day, count a real set: crackers, blocks, cars. Move each object as you count it. This builds one-to-one correspondence, which is the skill that turns number words into quantities.
Should you teach counting by tens before counting by ones to 100?
Direct answer: Get counting by ones solid to about 30 first, so the child understands that numbers go in order and that each row has a rhythm. Then teach the tens (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100) as a chant. Once the tens are automatic, the child has a signpost at the end of every row, and the decade transitions in counting by ones stop being a mystery.
Teaching the tens
- Sing or chant the tens on a rhythm. Clap on each one.
- Trace the right-hand column of the hundred chart with a finger while saying them.
- Count real groups of ten: bundles of ten straws, stacks of ten blocks, ten-frames filled with ten counters. Say "ten, twenty, thirty" as you add each group.
Counting by tens is also the start of place value, which becomes a major theme in 1st and 2nd grade. If you are curious where it leads, our post on place value for parents picks up from here.
Why do kids get stuck on the teens?
Direct answer: The teens break the pattern. Twenty-one, twenty-two and so on say the tens first and then the ones, but eleven, twelve and thirteen do not, and fourteen through nineteen say the ones first. Children who learn the sequence by ear have no rule to lean on between 10 and 20, so they skip, swap or freeze.
What helps:
- Slow the teens down. Say them one at a time with a pause and have the child echo.
- Show them on the chart. Point to 11 through 19 as a row with a shape of its own.
- Build them. Ten blocks plus one more is eleven; ten plus two is twelve. Seeing the ten inside each teen number makes the names less arbitrary.
- Do not rush past. If your child says "eleven, twelve, fourteen", gently model "eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen" and move on. No correction speech needed.
Why do kids get stuck at 29, 39 and 49?
Direct answer: Because nothing in "twenty-nine" tells you that "thirty" comes next. The ones digit resets and the tens digit steps up, and unless the child knows the tens sequence and can see the chart, they guess ("twenty-ten") or stop. Practice the transitions as pairs until they are automatic.
The transition drill
Take one minute of the routine for this once the tens are known:
- You say "twenty-eight, twenty-nine..." and pause. The child says "thirty".
- Repeat for thirty-eight, thirty-nine; forty-eight, forty-nine; and so on to ninety-nine.
- Then flip it: the child says the pair and you say the new decade.
- Finally, count from 25 to 45 together, straight through two transitions.
If the child freezes, point to the hundred chart: the end of a row, then the start of the next. The picture answers the question the words cannot.
How do I know it is working?
Direct answer: Track the highest number your child counts to on their own each week, not each day. A good sign is that the number climbs and the same transitions stop tripping them. A better sign is that they start noticing the pattern themselves ("after 59 is 60, right?").
| Week | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Weeks 1–2 | Confident range extends by a handful of numbers; teens get cleaner |
| Weeks 3–4 | Tens chant is automatic; child can find any number on the chart |
| Weeks 5–8 | Decade transitions mostly correct; counting on from a given number |
| After | Counting to 100 in one go on a good day, with the chart nearby on a bad one |
These are typical shapes, not a schedule; some children take longer, and that is fine at this age.
When does a counting game help?
Direct answer: A game helps once the child understands the sequence and needs repetition to make it automatic. It does not help before that, because a game cannot watch a child point at objects or hear whether they said "thirteen". Use the routine first and a game for extra reps on days you cannot sit with them.
The honest version of where TernQuest fits: it has kindergarten counting games mapped to this same standard, and one child can use it free, but the hundred chart on your fridge and a pile of blocks are the better tool while the concept is still forming. If your child is a preschooler who does not yet count to 10 reliably, skip the app entirely for now and just count things together.
If your child gets frustrated during practice, keep sessions short and stop on a success. Our post on math anxiety in kids explains why early math feelings matter more than early math speed.
Related reading
- Kindergarten math skills checklist (2026) — counting to 100 alongside the other year-end goals.
- Skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s — the next counting skill, and the bridge to multiplication.
- Number bonds and the make-ten strategy — what counting turns into once the sequence is solid.
Next step
When the routine is working and you want extra counting reps that do not depend on you, TernQuest has kindergarten counting games aligned to California Common Core and is free to start for one child. Keep the hundred chart on the fridge either way.