I walk Joseph to school most mornings. As we walk, we usually talk about math, though sometimes he wants to learn about different countries or science.
As we started our walk today, I asked, "What's six times seven?"
He was quiet for a little while. Then he said, "42!" I asked how he got it, and he said he added 7 six times to get it. I then asked what seven times seven was. Forty-nine.
Then I had an idea. What's six times eight? This one took him a while before I reminded him he could just add 6 to 42. Oh. 48.
"49 is right next to 48, and 7 is right next to 6 and 8." We tried again with 9 times 9 (81) and 10 times 8 (80). "81 is right next to 80, and 9 is between 8 and 10." He needed some help with 9 times 11, but by then he got the pattern.
"What is 10 times 12?" Easy, 120, he said.
"What is 11 times 11?" Our walk became quiet again as he thought about it. Then he said it slowly. "One hundred . . . and . . . twenty-one."
Then that gave me an idea. I explained that 11 times 11 is 121. Then 111 times 111 is 12321. He then got that 1111*1111 was 1234321, 11111*11111 was 123454321, and 111111*111111 is 12345654321. By then he was happily skipping on the sidewalk, laughing about what a silly trick that was.
The crossing guard watched him skip and grinned at us. We crossed the street and walked along the long sidewalk to Joseph's school. "Everything in math has a cool trick to it," I told him as he headed for the door.
Someday math might not be as fun for him. He might get bogged down in adding fractions or graphing inequalities like I was. But for now, math is place of joy and discovery, and I'm glad I get to witness it.
Ummm I'm pretty happy that my 1st grader can add ten to any number under 10 and get the answer. How is he multiplying? And I hope I never have to help my kids with math-lets just say I dont find it nearly as fun or easy as you.
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