How do you count on your fingers?

Here’s how I do it:

I think it’s a pretty normal way to count on fingers, and when I asked a group of adults to count on their fingers, most of them did either this, or started with their thumb.

But then I asked my 6-year-old how he counts on his fingers and this is what he showed me:

I had to have him do it for me a few times because it was so strange! It starts off normal enough, but then when he moves from two to three, instead of just holding up the next finger, he puts down his first finger and holds up a completely different set of fingers!

I have lots and lots of thoughts about this, but for now I’ll just leave this here as an example of the weird and wonderful things that happen when you ask kids to show you how they think.