How to fix number reversals in 5 minutes

My 8 year old boy still reverses many numbers and letters. From experience with his sisters, I'm pretty sure that learning cursive this fall will help with the letters, but I was at a loss as to how to correct his numbers.

I drew a correct and incorrect 7. He couldn't choose the right one. The same with 5, 3, 2, 6, and 9.

After a little internet reading, we figured it out!

Hold up your right hand (the one with the pencil) and form a C.

This is the shape of the opening to the 2, 3, 5, and 7. Curve it a little and you get the 4 as well. (He caught onto this very quickly.)

For the letter d, I'd already taught him that his donut rolled off the table and hit a wall. (Get out a piece of paper, draw a donut, and expain what happened, drawing the line for the wall.)

So keeping with that wall theme, we pretended that 9 donuts ran up the wall and got stuck up there. (Using the paper, I drew nine lines going up the wall, counting them all out.)

But, the 6th donut rolled up and over to the other side of the wall. (Creating the number 6).

I explained 9 and 6 again, drawing it out again. Then he told me the stories.

I had him write his numbers twice.

He did them all correctly, with a little excited giggling from both of us.

Time will tell if this will stick, but I'm thinking our number reversal problems are fixed!

I hope this helps some of your kiddos!