Reply to Do kids need to understand "borrow and pay back" subtraction (vs regrouping)?

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[quote=Anonymous]I agree with the PPs.  Do what works for your kid.  Math teachers are required to teach 50 kazillion strategies.  Administrators and math educators, neither of which groups contain anyone who is a K-12 teacher with practical experience in the classroom, apparently hope that this multiple strategy approach will mean that something will catch.  Unfortunately it just ends up confusing kids.

However, your kid should try to have one solid strategy and then a back-up for each concept.  This will be very important as the child moves into things like fractions in elementary, and even more important as the child moves into higher math with algebra and beyond.  Some level of flexible thinking and ability to move between a few preferred strategies will be helpful.

In your example OP I would encourage the kids to either count up or use the base 10 system mentally.  When I look at the problem, I see the last digits.  I see 7 and I know 3 more takes me to 0 (for a 10).  From 0 I know 2 more takes me to the 2.  So 3 + 2 equals 5.  I see the Tens place has a 0 so that means my answer is 5.  If the Tens place had a value (like 1032 - 997) then I would add 30 to my 5.

Anyway, if the strategy the program is offering stresses out your kid then just move on.[/quote]

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