Playing with Numbers

L randomly tells me, usually a few times per day, some math fact she's figured out for the fun of it.

The other day, she told me "2+2+2 is 6," and she's been doing that kind of multiplication for a while.  But then she told me how she came to that conclusion.  She said, "Because 3 plus 3 is 6, so you take 2 out of one 3, 2 out of the other 3, and that leaves 1 and 1 which is 2.  So you have three 2s and that makes 6."

Well, yes, that most certainly works!  And that's a far more abstract way of figuring it out than just counting on your fingers!

She's not always so open about what her process is.  She likes to figure things out, like if there are 12 ice creams how many does each kid get, but she doesn't usually like to show how she's doing it.  She will count in her head and discretely use her fingers, and I sometimes have to resist the urge to help her because I'm not sure if she's really figuring it out... but then she comes up with the answer!