Mom, what's mulitiplication?

That's the question Max asked me last week. At least, I think it was last week when I picked him up from school and we were on our to go get his sister. He knows addition, kind of knows subtraction but I don't even think he is supposed to learn multiplication for a few years. Anyways, in the car, I was trying to figure out a good way to explain it to him and drive at the same time. Thank goodness for red lights. It gave me a chance to use my hands to give him some examples. You know like 3 x 2 = 6. I held up both hands showing 3 fingers. I asked him how many times I showed the number 3 and what number did that create. He kind of caught on and we did a few of those type of examples. It was interesting to try and teach him and I even talked to his teacher about it.

Fast forward to today. He was doing a worksheet and he needed to count his teeth. He came up to me and said '10 two times is 20= multiplication.' I just wasn't expecting it. It is nice to see that he was listening and comprehending what I said. He is growing up so fast.