My name is Bond. Number Bond.
I got this rather humourous title from an ex-colleague of mine - a Maths and Social Studies teacher. He posted a picture on my Face Book comment when I complained about number bonds. Interestingly, a Primary School teacher (my student) liked my rant as well. So maybe my thoughts about number bonds are widespread? At least I have proven that two other persons disliked this idea. First, what are number bonds? It is two numbers that make up bigger number. For example, 6+4=10 or 7+10=17. Apparently, the word was first used in 1920s and it entered the Singapore curriculum in the 1970s. This is from Wikipedia - interestingly that that Singapore was specified. I know for sure that the American Common Core use number bonds as well. It is pretty basic stuff. The complication, I believe, comes when it is used to add or subtract bigger numbers, like 13-7. One strategy, is called 'making 10'. This is when you break the bigger number into 10 & 3. Then, you use 1...