Tyler and Math

Tyler has taught himself a lot of math.  His usual motivation is that he wants to play the math video games that Lydia plays.

This morning I was going through some of Lydia's second grade math book with him, to see what he knew.  We did some two digit additions, which he's pretty comfortable with.  But these ones had carry, and I didn't known how well he would handle that.  He did the first one correctly in his head (after probably about 10-15 seconds of silence).  I asked him how he did it and he began a long explanation.  Then I showed him the trick of writing the carried digit on paper so that you don't lose track of it.  So we do the next one, and again he doesn't write anything but comes up with the answer.  This time I ask again how he did it, and I try to probe into how he did the tens digits so he can identify that he is in fact doing the carry.  He pauses, trying to find the correct explanation for how to do the addition after adding the ones:  "... you think really hard ...."

I'm always willing to accept that answer. :)