One way that children learn about addition is through practical experience. In everyday life, we add when we combine two sets of objects, such as opening a packet of six cakes and a packet of four cakes and putting them on a plate. Sometimes we then count to find the total; in general, we find the total mentally. Experience shows children that six cakes and four cakes always make ten cakes.
In subtraction too, children learn by practical experience. They learn that removing a particular number of things from a group always leaves the same number of things. And again, this helps them learn about numbers in the abstract. A set of six cars with two removed always leaves four so, eventually, they learn that 6 minus 2 is 4.
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