How to Teach Place Value to Your Child at Home

By the Practice Buds team · October 18, 2026

Short answer

Place value means the position of a digit tells you how much it is worth. In 352, the 3 is worth 300, the 5 is worth 50 and the 2 is worth 2. Teach it with real bundles of ten before any worksheet, then move to paper once your child can build a number and say what each digit stands for. A few minutes a day with printable hundreds, tens and ones worksheets is plenty.

Why kids find this hard

A child learns to count one object at a time. Place value asks for a big shift: a group of ten gets treated as one new thing, and ten of those groups get treated as another.

The written number also hides all of this. The 5 in 352 looks exactly like the 5 in 5 or the 5 in 538, yet it means something different each time. Children who only memorize "the middle digit is the tens place" can name the columns but cannot explain why 352 is not "three, five, two." The meaning has to come from handling groups first.

Place value also sits under almost everything that follows. Regrouping in subtraction, carrying in addition and rounding all depend on it. A weak spot here shows up again later, so it pays to get it solid now.

How to teach it

You need about 30 small objects, like dried beans, and a few cups or rubber bands for making groups of ten. Straws bundled with rubber bands work well. So do pennies and dimes.

  1. Count a pile of 23 objects together. Then make groups of ten as you count, and ask, "How many groups of ten? How many are left over?" Your child sees 2 tens and 3 ones.
  2. Write the number under the pile. Point to the 2 and say, "This digit counts the tens." Point to the 3 and say, "This one counts the ones."
  3. Add a hundred. Show that ten tens make one hundred, and bundle ten of your ten-bundles together. This is the step that surprises most children, so do it slowly.
  4. Build three-digit numbers with the objects and ask your child to write them. Start with numbers that have no zeros, like 241.
  5. Reverse it. Write 352 on a card and ask your child to build it. Then ask which digit tells you how many bundles of ten.
  6. Compare and swap. Build 352 and 532, set them side by side, and talk about why the same digits make different amounts.
  7. Introduce zero as a place holder. Build 406 and ask, "How many tens?" The zero holds the tens spot so the 4 stays in the hundreds place.
  8. Move to drawings. When building with objects feels easy, switch to quick sketches: a square for a hundred, a stick for a ten, a dot for a one.

Worked example

Take the number 352.

Step 1: Build it. Make 3 hundreds, 5 tens and 2 ones.

Step 2: Say each digit's value. The 3 is in the hundreds place, so it is worth 3 × 100 = 300. The 5 is in the tens place, so it is worth 5 × 10 = 50. The 2 is in the ones place, so it is worth 2 × 1 = 2.

Step 3: Write the number in expanded form: 300 + 50 + 2 = 352.

Step 4: Swap the digits to see the difference. In 532, the 5 is now worth 5 × 100 = 500, and the 3 is worth 3 × 10 = 30. Same digits, a different number.

Step 5: Check by adding it back up. 300 + 50 + 2 = 352, which is the number we started with.

Common mistakes

Reading the number as three separate digits. Your child sees 352 and says "three, five, two" and cannot say how much it is. Spot it when they list digits but cannot tell you which is biggest in value. Fix it by building the number from bundles every time until they say "3 hundreds, 5 tens, 2 ones" on their own.

Writing numbers the way they sound. When asked to write "four hundred six," your child writes 4006 or 40006 because they hear "four hundred" and "six" as two pieces to put side by side. Spot it when a zero appears in the wrong spot or too many digits show up. Fix it with a card that has three boxes marked hundreds, tens and ones, so the digits have a place to land.

Skipping the zero. For 406, your child writes 46. Spot it when a number with an empty place shrinks. Fix it by asking, "How many tens are in 406?" and letting them build it. The answer, zero, makes the missing digit feel necessary.

Mixing up the value of the digit and the digit itself. Asked what the 5 is worth in 352, your child says 5, not 50. Spot it when the answer is always the digit alone. Fix it by pointing at the bundles: "Five bundles of ten. How many beans is that?"

Practice ladder

First (week 1): Tens and ones with objects, up to 99. Your child can build any two-digit number and say how many tens and ones.

Next (weeks 2 and 3): Hundreds, tens and ones with objects and drawings. Add numbers with a zero in the middle, like 305 and 730.

Then (week 4): Expanded form, such as 400 + 20 + 7 = 427, and comparing numbers by looking at the hundreds digit first.

Later: Thousands, then larger numbers. Place value also supports regrouping in subtraction, so it makes a good lead-in before trades on paper.

FAQ

What grade learns place value? Most children meet tens and ones in 1st grade, add hundreds in 2nd grade and extend to thousands in 3rd grade. Many go back and review each year.

Should my child use base ten blocks? They help a lot, and any objects that can be grouped work just as well. The goal is for your child to feel ten ones become one ten. Dried beans and bundled straws do that for free.

How is place value different from just counting? Counting tells you how many. Place value tells you how the number is built, which is what lets you add, subtract and compare big numbers without counting one by one.

My child gets two-digit numbers but struggles with three digits. Why? The jump from ten ones to one ten is usually clear by now. The jump from ten tens to one hundred is a second, separate idea. Go back to bundling and make the hundred out of tens before you write any numbers.

Practice at home

Ten minutes a day on one skill beats a long weekend session. Printing needs a free account.

Start with hundreds, tens and ones worksheets, browse all the place value worksheets, and when your child is ready, try tens and ones practice for review, base ten blocks worksheets or thousands, hundreds, tens and ones.