Invented addition strategies

It is important to allow children to reason about math concepts in a way that makes sense to them. As they are learning about new concepts, make sure to honor their invented strategies, and not insisting on memorizing traditional algorithms. For instance, if the middle childhood child is adding 53 + 28, they might reason that taking 2 from the 53 and giving it to the 28 is easier. Then the addition problem becomes 51 + 30. This is a much easier problem to solve. Or the child might subtract 7 from the 28 and give it to 53, so now we are adding 60 + 21. Notice that solving any of these yields the same sum, so which ever way the child chooses to solve the problem (or invent a strategy of their own) is ok.

Other possible strategies:

(50 + 20) + (3 + 8)

50 + 20 + 8 + 2 + 1

Endless possibilities