You skipped a step. One of the problems is more obvious with a different operator we learn when in the "box" stage:
> Go from "[ ] x 2 = 10" to writing it "box x 2 = 10--what is box?". Then "b x 2 = 10--what is b?" then "x x 2 = 10--what is x?".
From memory, we didn't switch from "x" to dot for multiplication until at the exact same time we started using symbols. If we'd done it earlier (or even right from the start) it might not have been as much of a problem.
> Go from "[ ] x 2 = 10" to writing it "box x 2 = 10--what is box?". Then "b x 2 = 10--what is b?" then "x x 2 = 10--what is x?".
From memory, we didn't switch from "x" to dot for multiplication until at the exact same time we started using symbols. If we'd done it earlier (or even right from the start) it might not have been as much of a problem.