Students who are allowed the time, experience and supportive environment within which they are able to build conceptual understanding are able to develop and apply meaningful strategies for solving problems. These strategies may or may not “look” like those that we as teachers are familiar with. What matters is if they work consistently and if they are based on mathematical reasoning. Sometimes personal strategies lead students to the awareness of and desire to move to “procedures” that adults show them. But more often the procedures students develop become internalized and automatic. They are able to complete far more work in their heads without the need for paper and pencil allowing them the time and skill to engage in more rich and complex problems.