A topic in the Open Knowledge Graph — a free, open map of 15,290 topics and the order to learn them in.
Skip counting by 2s (2, 4, 6, 8...) reveals a repeating pattern where each number is 2 more than the previous. This pattern identifies even numbers and prepares students for multiplication.
You already know how to count to 20 one step at a time: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... Skip counting means you take bigger jumps. When you skip count by 2s, you jump two numbers at a time: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10... You skip over 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 — you never land on them.
Think of it like hopping on a number line. Start on 0. Every hop covers 2 spaces. You land on 2, then 4, then 6, and so on. You can also check your work by adding 2 each time: 2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 2 = 6, 6 + 2 = 8. If you ever land on an odd number, you made a mistake somewhere.
The numbers you land on — 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12... — have a special name: even numbers. Every even number can be split into two equal groups. For example, 6 objects can be split into two groups of 3. Skip counting by 2s is one of the first ways mathematicians discovered even numbers.
This pattern keeps going forever in the same way. If you know the sequence up to 20, you can always extend it: just keep adding 2. You will use this same idea later when you start learning multiplication — multiplying by 2 is the same as skip counting by 2s.