In 2nd grade, I was sitting in math class and we were working on adding 3 digit numbers. I remember still sitting at my desk, finishing my assignment, while the whole class went out to recess. I was so confused as to why everyone was done so quickly. Then, one of my classmates came back because she forgot her jacket and saw me still struggling with my assignment. She took one look at me and laughed.

I had been adding 3 digit numbers all on my fingers. For example, if the question was "356 + 498", I would start at 356 and count to 498 ON MY FINGERS. Then, I would have to keep track of how many times I had gone through all ten fingers and UGH, it was awful!

My classmate spent the next ten minutes of recess teaching me how to write 356 OVER 498 and add each digit individually and she let me know all of the little things I needed to understand.

That really helped me, because adding big numbers is really important (and basic) in the subject of mathematics. Hopefully my goofy second grade story was entertaining!!