How do some learn reading/math before school?

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Something is bugging me. That thing is that some pretty smart kids are learning from their own to read and to do basic math before even going to school. By basic math I mean addition, subtraction, multiplication, divisions and fractions. I wonder where they get the informations to learn that. I remember in grade school of not having seen anything about multiplication until third grade when they have taught it in class; meaning I didn't seen it anywhere in my personal readings which was mostly non-fiction. Same thing for division and fractions in fourth grade. So I wonder, getting I haven't seen those concepts before been taught in classroom beside being a non-fiction reader, where some kids have being able to not only learn to read but to do basic math before even going to school. I get it it could be the internet for today kids, but some have done that before it became widespread. I also know that some on WP may have done that. So I wonder...

mathematical understanding is hard wired into human brains.
curiosity and the need for quantification in order to compare various ideas can result in the knowledge of mathematical constructs prior to any tuition.
i understood various things about quantification by multiplication and division before i ever spoke a word.

Hi B9, did you find yourself experimenting with numbers to figure out multiplication/division? I don't think I would've known how to start, although I recognize that even to a little kid, basic addition and subtraction are the next step if you start adding and removing objects.

Are we assuming their parents haven't introduced these concepts?

no i just inherently understood division and multiplication. it is kind of hard wired into ones psyche from birth.


i didn't try to "start". it was just something i basically understood.

I am in awe because for me, multiplication/division were more complex than addition/subtraction. I look at it this way: kids learn about numbers by counting, and then adding and removing objects, seeing that numbers have meaning.

Multiplication/division follow from addition/subtraction, yes. Still, they are higher level thinking and not just the result of counting objects. You have to see or be shown that 5+5+5 = 3*5.

As the numbers increase, it becomes slower to do multiplication/division if all you know how to do is count. So the teachers show the kids how to move beyond counting and into base 10 math, or the kids somehow figure it out I suppose.