Add and subtract within 5

What this skill is

Automatic recall of facts frees working memory for the actual problem. The order matters: strategy first, then speed. A fact only enters timed practice once the child can already derive it.

Three ways to teach it at home

1. Never time a fact they cannot yet work out by strategy. Timing converts a known strategy into recall; it does not create knowledge.
2. Keep it short — two or three minutes — and end on facts they already know.
3. Compare them only to their own previous best, out loud, and never to a sibling or a class.