As I read the Early Childhood article on algebra I am gently reminded that teachers need to do more than patterning in the early grades. I see lots of repeating and growing patterns in primary classrooms, but does the algebraic thinking stop here? Young students need to have many experiences representing and analyzing mathematical situations and structures. As a fourth grade teacher, I see students who don't truly understand the concept of equality, the idea that the equal sign means balance and not "the answer comes next."

They also need experiences in quantitative relationships. The other day I gave my students a problem: There are some kids and some dogs on the playground. There are 22 heads and 68 legs. How many kids are there? How many dogs are there? More than half of my students had no idea how to think about this problem. I don't remember much of my algebra learning and I know there is probably a way to solve this problem using algebra, but I want my students to be able to make sense of what they are doing, not use someone else's rule........so we muck around a lot with manips, tables, pictures and it starts to make sense.

So as I think about my kiddos all being ready to take algebra in 8th grade, I think not. Some may be ready before then, some later, but I am hoping with lots of early experiences in the primary and intermediate grades, they will all meet success.