Question for Elementary Teachers or Parents of Older Elementary Kids

Updated on November 11, 2011
V.B. asks from Pompano Beach, FL
9 answers

I am just curious about something. At what age or grade level do kids normally do double digit addition? A few examples: 13+2=15, 14+3=17, 15+4=19, 15+5=20, 23+1=24, etc.

I'll explain in my So What Happened after I get a few answers. I just wanted to get a consensus.

Thanks!

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So What Happened?

Thanks, ladies! I just wanted an unbiased opinion on what level my daughter was working at right now. She is in kindergarten (she is 5), but we moved her to a private school about six weeks ago because she was in an overcrowded classroom in the public school and her teacher wasn't really able to work with us to be sure she was challenged. At her new school, she goes to the first grade class for math and reading and spends the rest of the day with her kindergarten class. Today, she was doodling on some paper after school and after awhile, came over and handed it to me and she had written those math problems above on her paper. I didn't even know what she was doing until she gave it to me (I thought she was just drawing) and I was just shocked at what she knew. My husband said he thought he didn't do that level of math until age 7, but I wasn't sure (frankly, I'm too old to remember! LOL!). She is our oldest and she has always been ahead, so I am not even sure what "normal" is anymore. I appreciate your responses. I just want to keep tabs on what she's doing and what level she is actually working at. Thanks again.

She also does some multiplication and understands the concepts behind it. She knows the "anything times zero is zero" and the "anything times one is the same number" rules and can multiply smaller numbers. Again, I just want to make sure I know what level she is working at so that I can be sure she is placed in the correct classroom. My husband thought it was closer to second grade level, but I was leaning towards first.

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S.

answers from Boca Raton on

I can't remember exactly when my daughter started the adding double digits but I will tell you that they are teaching them pre-algebra in the 4th grade. I didn't learn that until Jr high. So they are teaching them stuff crazy early!!

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V.W.

answers from Jacksonville on

I honestly can't remember. Definitely by first, though. My kids were in private school then, though so it may be different in public school. Very often private schools are advanced beyond what they are doing in the public system. Particularly in the elementary grades.
My daughter was doing those problems in kindergarten, but she is gifted and spent her "fun" time at home doing workbooks and reading her older brother's science books from 2nd grade (when she was 5, before entering kindergarten). I can't remember what our son was doing math-wise in first grade. But I am thinking they had started double digit addition by the end of kindergarten.... I know by the 2nd month of third grade, they were doing long division with remainders.....

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S.S.

answers from Miami on

My nephew was the same and now in 3rd grade he has big learning disabilites. Children can't keep building their left brain without the connections and maturity that their brains can give them at older ages so it all falls down later on. Usually it shows in comprehension problems as higher order tasks become needed in later grades.

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☆.A.

answers from Pittsburgh on

I think second half of 1st--definitely by 2nd.
My son (3rd) is tutoring a 1st grader in math 2 mornings per week and the 1st grader is working ahead & is doing double digit addition easily now, in Nov.

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N.B.

answers from Sarasota on

Depends on the school. Most private schools work a year ahead, so they handle double-digit in 1st. My daughter was doing double-digit in K, and is now in 2nd grade adding and subtracting up to 1,000,000 with regrouping. She is in a school for the gifted. Thank God my husband was a math major!!

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M.M.

answers from Washington DC on

In school 6-7 or 1st grade. In 2nd they start multiplication.
If you work with an exceptionally gifted child they can learn this at 3 or 4.

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J.B.

answers from Boston on

2nd. My second grader's class right now is still working on total memorization of addition and subtraction to 12 (the expectation is that they should know these automatically by now) and they are doing the rest of the teens as new work.

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G.B.

answers from Oklahoma City on

Ours is in 2nd and has been doing this stuff at least all this school year. I really think it was in 1st they started doing this simple math.

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K.B.

answers from Tampa on

It seems like addition etc. are introduced and then circled back through for many of the elementary grades. Where is it introduced? Maybe 1st. My son is in 5th and they are doing Kahn Academy at home and that program starts you off with addition. The past two years, they were doing "mad minutes" with about 50 math problems and they had to get through addition before moving ahead. So that was about getting faster.

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