Developing Number Sense Through CGI

As I work more and more with students I have come to the conclusion that the problem is NOT that they don't know their number facts, like we "teachers" often reply.  Not knowing their basic facts I believe is the symptom to a much larger problem.  Kids DON'T HAVE NUMBER SENSE. 
If kids had number sense they would know their basic facts because they would understand and have strategies for finding out facts.  For example:  A student might have memorized 4 x 3 = 12 but when asked so what is 4 x 6 they often claim, "I don't know, I haven't memorized that one yet."  If the student had number sense, they would understand the relationship between 4 x 3 and 4 x 6 as being doubled.  I just need to double the 12 to make 24.  THAT'S NUMBER SENSE.  So how do we develop number sense?  Cognitively Guided Instruction is the answer.

CGI is a problem based strategy which requires students to work with numbers and number relationships in a way to help them build their number sense abilitites.  They start realizing that 9 is one away from 10 so instead of multiply 27 x 9, they could just multiply 27 x 10 (much easier) - 270, then subtract 27 because they added one 27 times too many.   Number Sense takes time.  Giving students the gifts of number sense and time are the two best gifts you can give students in the primary grades.  "Slow down, to Speed Up".  If we don't slow down to develop number sense, we will continue to watch students spin their wheels.  

If you have other ideas and or thoughts that you would like to share.  Please comment.