In second grade, students start to develop an understanding of multiplication and division as concepts. This year, they're learning how to multiply and divide.
Third grade is the setting for increasingly complex math, and these operations play center stage. Some of this new math will be memorized (which is likely a new practice in itself): You'll be listening to multiplication table recitations that go up to at least 12 x 12 [source: Ladies' Home Journal]. But your third-grader will be doing some serious math equations, too, using processes that many encounter this year for the first time. Teachers typically expect their students to learn to multiply double-digit numbers by single-digit numbers, and divide the same, as well as start to work with related concepts like fractions and decimals.
So by the end of the year, your baby might be helping you calculate the tip. And that's just the beginning. In language, too, your child may encounter some concepts that are, for the most part, truly new.