ava: mommy, do you know what 4 times 4 is?

cailin: nope. what is it, ava?

ava: 16!

up to this point, this is an unremarkable conversation. i taught ava the very basics of multiplication with really low numbers (like 2x3). recently, in kindergarten they worked on a story problem that involved the concept of 4 groups of 4 being 16. ava correctly recognized that as multiplication, which is cool, but not entirely surprising.

ava: mommy, what's 4 times 5?

cailin: wow, ava that's a hard one. (thinks to self...no way in hell does she know this one...)

ava: it's the same as 2 times 10!

ava: and that's 20!