Double Check Progress Reports

     I had an experience today tutoring a child that is worth sharing.  He had gotten his final progress report for the year.  I look at progress reports more from a perspective of where the "teacher and child" had a disconnect on learning together. 

     This is neither the fault of the child, or the teacher.  It is just simply the area where the two stopped connecting on concepts.  I noticed the teacher had said the child needed help adding, subtracting and dividing numbers that were three.  This means 123 + 549 = ?  would be a challenge for this child.

     I noticed he was having trouble with two numbers in a row like 12 +9 = ? because he was trying to do it in his head, or on his fingers.  Counting is the first math concept most children learn.  Sometimes there is a pressure for a child to do too much in their head.

     The child didn't like subtraction, but loved addition.  I thought to myself, "I don't believe this progress report" and I offered the kid a challenge to add larger numbers.  He started right in on problems like 1244 + 4345 = ? and got excited.  He learned the concept of 1 thousand, 10 thousand and 100 thousand.  He got so excited that he wanted to add numbers over a million and he did.  Remember this is a 2nd Grader going into 3rd.  

His teacher said he had trouble with addition of numbers in the form of 3, but he had no problem solving 984,723 + 323,931 = ?

     He was proud.

     His mom was proud.

     The moral of the story is it was easier for this child to add a larger group of numbers because it was more like a puzzle.  It was easier for his head to see adding numbers once there were 4.