Each column on the periodic table shows how many valence electrons. On the first two columns, there are only two electrons, and only the first energy ring. So at column 3, it starts over as one valence electron. One it gets to 11, the valence electrons are the ones at the end. So if it is column 14, the amount of valence electrons would be 4.
(A valence electron is the amount of electrons on the biggest energy ring)