The sum is the same, no matter how you got there; so how'd you get there?

Yet another example of adults saying "But there's a better way..."

No one would argue that you, adult, can add probably faster than an elementary school student.

We are in the process of building UP TO that speed and accuracy. By encouraging your child to imagine the groupings, you are building their imagination (draw whatever you'd like!), their math skills (count up, make 10s), and their mental flexibility ALL IN 1 PROBLEM!

Check out my NEW addition video for a little more about how this problem is VERY similar to what many adults already do!

Making sense of a problem IRL isn't about having an algorithm to write out your work. Instead it's about applying what you know to a REAL situation.

This is what most adults
think of when they see
an addition problem:

But this is what many
adults actually do when
adding mentally.

Comments

Homework = Tears? What's the upstream problem?

Tell me if you've heard this one before... Parent and child at the table working on child's homework. Child becomes frustrated and begins to cry Parent becomes equally (or more) frustrated by the tears/the assignment/both. Sound familiar? It's pretty common, but let's ask a new question - what's the upstream problem? Not familiar with the idea of "upstream problems"? It was new to me until very recently - but the best description I've heard is this: There's a town in which every evening a child washes up on the banks of the local river. Every day the fire department rescues the child and is lauded as heroes. One day a new fire chief takes over. After a week, he throws up his hands and just as the child washes up, he hops in, saves the child, but doesn't stay for the celebration. Instead he marches upstream. When he's questioned on his way out of town he

The Power of Yet (and I Don't Know)

This one's for all the parents facing the "why...?" and "how...?" and "why not...?" and "do I have to...?" questions. And for the teachers (and parents) who are uncomfortable with admitting they aren't the omniscient geniuses we'd like our kids (and students) to believe we are. There is a LOT of power in the word YET. And even more power (in my opinion) in admitting you don't know. Students of all ages need to know that they don't have to know everything - and the people in their lives don't know everything either. Try it out. It's OK to not get it, yet. It's OK to not know. Let's find out together.

Keep, Borrow, Change...Right?

Subtraction - Take Aways - Whatever you call it this is the first "big" hurdle for many students in a long race of mathematics. It turns out that this first hurdle is often the first time parents seem to get beyond frustrated with the MANY ways students are presented with solving a subtraction problem. All of the skills you'll see in this video are essentially shortcuts that many discover on their own through mental math and practice. By presenting them to students at a young age they become more and more comfortable with numbers and their reasoning and number sense improves overall. Enjoy!

Demystifying Elementary Math (from a Secondary Perspective)

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