If you ask a preschooler what 1+1 is they'll point one finger on their left hand and one finger on their right hand, count them, and tell you 1+1 is 2.

Great!

Math lessons have extended beyond basic counting to addition and subtraction and I'm pretty impressed.

However, when I asked Abby the other day what 5+6 was, she said 7!

When she showed me how she came up with the sum, though, I had a good chuckle.

See, Chinese number gesturing is done with one hand. You count all the way up to 10 using one hand and the gestures from 6-10 represent the characters for those numbers. See this wiki page for a good explanation.

So, 5 digits on one hand to signify 5 + the thumb and pinkie fingers to signify the 6 = a total of 7 fingers up.

+ = 7

Q.E.D.