Mind of his own

This afternoon I was thinking about something I was discussing with the Math teacher in our school. Pablo & I have been working on multiplication on-and-off for the last few months. Every so often I’ll throw him a math question so he gets to practice without it feeling like a chore for either of us.  

Me: "Pablo, what is 8 times 4?"

Pablo: "32.

 I did 8 times 2 which is 16.

 Then I need to add 16 and 16.

So I did 10 + 10 = 20, 6 + 6 = 12. Then 20 + 12 = 32." 

😀 

Big smile from the little boy, then he goes back to whatever it was he was playing with. I’m a little bug-eyed. 😮  I’ve always known that he does Math in a different way but I was very surprised at the difference in our approaches.

I don't mind that it's different. It's a gentle reminder that there are different ways of finding a solution and that I need to give him space for that.