One thing I do not understand is why so many kids struggle with this concept. Is it the way we are teaching it? Does anyone ask the students if they really understand that exponents are repeated multiplication? While tutoring this week, I showed my student what it would look like in an expanded form rather than using the exponential notation and she started to understand what she needed to do for simplifying.

I know students in the US are taught that before Algebra 1. But, if they are not ready for the abstractness that comes with repeated multiplication they might not be ready for exponents at that time.