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Use fingers to make it easy to subtract a single-digit number from any number, or to subtract any two numbers whose difference is a single-digit number.

Storybook properties

This has lots of shapes and polygons (many-sided flat shapes).

Activities properties

These involve lots of practice with addition and subtraction.

Two subtractions

The two models for subtraction, take away and difference, are both important and both need to be practiced. Here are methods that use a child’s hands to keep track of part of the calculation. As with finger addition using fingers, these methods use your child’s skill with recognizing quantities of fingers. We’ll use 14 – 8 as our example for both methods.

Take away with fingers

This method uses counting down to take away a single-digit number from any number. Have your child start with two closed fists and say “14.” Counting down from 14, your child raises one more finger with each new number: “13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.” Your child will stop at 6 when they see they have 8 fingers raised.

Difference with fingers

This method uses Counting On to find a single-digit difference between any two numbers. Have your child start with two closed fists and say “8.” Counting On from 8, your child raises one more finger with each new number: “9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.” When your child hits 14, they look at their fingers and see that the difference is 6.

Reliable but will be replaced

These will eventually be replaced by other methods, but for now these are reliable and are something your child can be assured will always give them the right answer any time they need it.