Why We Always Try to Answer Questions

One of the reasons we always answer the kids' questions is that we never know for what they are using the information.

For example- We were driving around this weekend and Josh (8y) asked me, "What is 100 divided by 2?" and instead of saying, "You can figure that out." I just answered, "50."

Just after he asked, "And what is 100 divided by 5?" to which Papa replied, "20."

A few more division questions later he happily announced, "I think I understand division now! It's groups! So when you say 100 divided by 5 is 20 that means there are 5 groups of 20 in 100. It's like multiplication!"

He was asking us questions because he wanted to analyze the information and come to his conclusion. Even though he's been able to answer such division questions himself for a while, and we have explained how division is the opposite of multiplication, apparently he just grasped the deeper meaning behind the answers.

I suspect if I had told him to figure it out himself, he may have become frustrated with me and abandoned the train of thought.