Help 7-Year-Olds Master Addition Through Play

Second grade is where addition becomes a written procedure. The carry is the whole difficulty: it is written small, it belongs to the next column, and it is forgotten the moment attention moves on. Facts within 20 still have to be instant underneath, because a child running the procedure and rebuilding facts at once has no attention left for either.

Second grade is the written-method year. Column addition and subtraction arrive, then regrouping, and with them the first arithmetic that has a procedure to follow rather than a fact to recall. Children who still lack instant facts within 20 find this year disproportionately hard, because they are running a procedure and reconstructing facts at the same time.

2nd graders are expected to add two-digit numbers in columns, first without and then with regrouping, keeping facts within 20 automatic; after that comes two-digit column addition, then regrouping.

Watch for forgetting the carried digit once attention moves to the next column.