Why is eleven not “oneteen” and twelve not “twoteen” and thirteen not “threeteen”?

If you know the answer, please do tell because Li’l Miss is seriously questioning me on this.

And I quote the Li’l Miss: “Why this not “three-teen” if that is “four-teen”?

{spoken with just a little bit of an attitude and maybe even with a hand or two on the hips}

I say I don’t honestly know, which honestly does not appease her.

Alas, we keep plugging away at “three-teen” … I mean, thirteen … and fourteen … and so on through twenty.

To keep it all in good fun, I of course pulled out our Education Cubes and number insert cards 1–20. I love that Mama Jenn included the number 0 as well.

Li’l Dude has that zero down. Li’l Miss has them all almost. She is so close.

Li’l Dude can identify through number 6 consistently and numbers 9 and 10 as well.

Don’t ask. He is just not fond of the numbers 7 and 8.

On another day, I pulled out our magnetic numbers. Like the letters except numbers.

I would call out the number and they would place them on the magnetic board.

I did this with them individually, which worked out well for a change-up.

I was quite proud of Li’l Dude for getting numbers 1–10 correct.

I’m not sure why, but he insisted number 9 needed to be put where he put it.

And Li’l Miss figured out quickly that 11–19 means putting a 1 and then adding the next number in sequence: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and so on.

We need some more number 1s; this is why hers looks incomplete because she had to keep “borrowing” the 1s.

And she was still not hearing why 11 could not be called “oneteen.” 🙂