I love math Mommy!!!

"I love it, I really love it", that's what Brendan was telling me yesterday. He's been adding and subtracting for quite awhile. I had started times tables with him a few months ago and he was interested. I found a poster with the times tables about a month ago and he loves to go over it and gets the concept of multiplication I think. He can do the 0, 1, and 10 times tables on his own if he tries and if I prompt him can do 3 and 4, i.e., if he's doing 3x4, what's 3+3, plus another 3, plus another 3.

So when he was telling me yesterday he loved math, for the heck of it I got a piece of paper and wrote out some addition problems in column format, adding double digit numbers. After I talked him through a couple of problems, he understood the column format and did them very well. He had me write several problems and then dictate them to him while he wrote them out and answered them. Today I tried showing him some problems where you had to carry a 1 into the second column. He understood the concept but didn't seem to like those. He told me that he wanted to do subtraction instead. I didn't have to show him how it worked in column format, I just gave him the problems and he went right at them.

I love to see how he gets so excited when he learns something new. After he completed the problems I wrote out, he had me dictate several problems so he could continue. But what I'd like to know is why he can do things like this and yet I still need to wipe his tush after he poops (and today is the anniversary of his specialest day last year when he pooped on the toilet for the first time) or get him dressed or why he still can't eat without usually spilling half his meal on his shirt. Ahhh, the wonders of being Brendan at 4.