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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please do not teach this nonsense of “borrowing & paying back.” What’s best for your kid is to develop a solid conceptual understanding of regrouping in a base ten system. What’s best is for your kid to be a flexible thinker and to pick which strategy is the most efficient to solve the problem in front of them.

For example: If presented with 1002-997=___, the most efficient strategy is NOT to set it up vertically and regroup. The most efficient way to solve this subtraction problem is to simply “add up.” 998-999-1000-1001-1002. The answer is 5.

[/quote]

NP. So what I end up doing for a problem like that is to say, in my head “ok 997 to 1,000 is 3 and then 1,000 to 1,002 is 2, so 3+2=5.” I don’t have a school-aged kid, so I don’t know if that’s how they’re teaching it to kids these days, but it’s definitely how I think about it. [/quote]

I add three to both numbers, and then do 1005-1000=5.  Which is one of the strategies that my kid learned.  She also learned a few other strategies, including regrouping.  I don't know what the "borrowing and paying back" method is, if it's not regrouping (which was called "borrowing" when I was a kid but was exactly the same).  I think the kid needs to learn as many of the strategies as she can, because they help develop number sense, and then master regrouping.  If one of the strategies doesn't make sense, don't sweat it.  [/quote]

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