I sometimes feel like my son learns math by osmosis, and neither he nor my husband and I can tell how he knows something. He just started 4th grade and is able to do very basic pre-algebra problems (such as 15x-10=57.5).
He hears a problem or sees it and seems to just know the answer, even though he either can't tell me how he got the answer at all or comes up with some odd, more complex than necessary methodology.
For those with children like him, how have you approached that subject? Do you teach them the "proper" way to solve the problems or just let them work on their own until they are taught this in school (in our area, my son won't formally learn pre-algebra for another 2-3 years). He wants to learn more advanced math, and creates problems to ask us on his own. I don't want to do anything to kill his love of math or even his creativity in solving the problems, but I also worry that his approach could hurt him down the road. Could it? Or is the creativity simply a sign of problem-solving/critical thinking skills?
