Picture stories with Mia, Max and Mathix help children to avoid the stumbling blocks encountered on the path to gaining a firm understanding of numbers. The material in this book trains children to make the transition from counting off to counting up, that is, to differentiate between ordinal and cardinal numbers.The transition from counting off to counting up is a difficult one for many children. In the former, the order is the most important thing: "I'm on third place"; in the latter, the total number is important: "There are three of us." How to understand the difference? Uncertainties in this elementary matter can result in major problems later. The materials presented serve to give children a firm grasp of numbers, thereby employing an old and reliable method: Numbers and number categories were originally intended as mnemonics for recitations. With Mia, Max and Mathix children can learn to understand the world of numbers in a creative, playful and imaginative way.

Dr. André Frank Zimpel ist Professor für Erziehungswissenschaft unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Förderschwerpunktes Geistige Entwicklung und mit dem Forschungsschwerpunkt Rehabilitationspsychologische Diagnostik an der Universität Hamburg.