Math - mental, working and stories

I've been noticing that Kayne's mental maths speed increasing. Also his, the only way I can say this is, 'working maths' is becoming more obvious. I asked him 199+1 and he said well 100+100=200. So either he did 99+1 (in his head) and then 100+100 OR he avoided my question altogether and it just happened to be similar. He also asked what 100x100 was. Also whilst doing some writing stuff he wrote out 1+1-1=1.

We got some books from the library with 'math stories' in them and he has been enjoying them. It's interesting to see him tackle maths in a different way. There was a part about crossing a ravine and there were 4 different lengths of rope, it asked about how they could make another length the same as the longest, with out missing a beat he said; 'obviously they will tie two small ones together'.
I have found some others online - I love homeschool resources.

I had one of those 'oh yeah he is different/advanced' moments the other day. We went into Waterstones to look for some books. Kayne picked up this ORT; Stage 9 and starts reading the first page - substituting quicker for quickly. He hands it to me and starts looking again. A boy and his dad come along, the boy is about 7/8yrs, the dad picks up a Stage 6 book and the boy pushes through the first few sentances. I hate to compare, all kids are different, but i was thinking whoa! I have struggled recently with my thoughts, i keep thinking that maybe he is just bright. Not that it matters but i don't want to be 'that mum'.
Another thing i want to say is that this Dad was doing something i thought was 'wrong' in the sense that he wasn't helping the childs confidence. The boy asked if he had to read it, the Dad said 'Yes, i want to see if it's too hard for you.' If i felt i had to gauge a book by getting Kayne to read; i would have said 'i want to see if it's too easy for you'. I am hoping that this way it emplies that he is a good reader.