Use your fingers! I grew up with educators who would slap our hands (if they could) if we used our fingers to do math.
Why?!?
I've got ten digits that are awesome at keeping track of things, even though I'm pretty decent at math.
Fingers are great! I encourage everyone who was ever shamed like I was about using their hands to count to unabashedly count on your fingers and toes.
@vincent @CppGuy @hollie
I hope this isn't rude, but to bounce off your post, a few years ago I saw an article about using one hand to count to 12, which I found amazing.
You use your thumb to point to the different joints of the fingers, with index tip being one, middle top being two, all the way to the joint closest to the hand on the little finger being 12.
It also allows for the other hand to count multiples of 12 each time you "wrap round", but that requires more mental arithmetic.