math

Fun with Math

| patmcg

Molly has a surprising new form of entertainment while I drive her around in the car.  She is doing a math self-assessment.  For fun!  Her idea, I swear!   And this from a girl who was doing extra math tutoring just last year!  You have no idea how happy this makes a dad.

Specifically, Molly is doing the official State of Texas 3rd grade math assessment practice workbook.  It’s an old copy that she inherited from Claire.

Math Book.jpeg

Occasionally as we drive around, Molly will ask me to check her math.

Molly: “Dad, what’s 18 plus 7?”

Me: “I think you probably know that one.  Do you have a guess?”

Molly: “Mmmmm… 25?”

Me: “Yep.  Well played!”

I asked Molly what she enjoys about doing math for fun, and she just says, “I dunno.  I just like it.”  She did tell me me she does sometimes get frustrated by multi-step questions.  I told her a little challenge can be a good thing.  She nodded and kept plugging away at the workbook.

How this happened, I do not know.  I guess the math tutoring worked! 🤷🏻‍♂️

Math Quiz

| patmcg

Claire decided that it would be fun to ask me some math questions while driving her and Molly home from school today.  What could be better?  It started out easy enough.  “Ziggy has 6 bananas.  Joe gives Ziggy an apple.  How many pieces of fruit does Ziggy have?”  On answering 7, Claire declared, “Great job!  You get a sticker when we get home!”  If I did not know that Claire was pretending to be an encouraging teacher, I might have thought she was being very sarcastic.

Then Claire tried to confuse me.  “Fifty has 70 cents.  Fifty gives Leo 3 cents.  How many cents does Fifty have?”  I tried to confuse her back.  “Hmm, so Seventy has 50 cents, right?”  It did not work.  Claire reiterated that someone named “Fifty” had 70 cents.  I said the answer was 67, but Molly was adamant that the answer was actually 90.

Finally, Claire just about stumped me.  “What is 100 divided by 2000?”  That was not easy to answer while driving down the freeway.  I told her it was .5, and she said “Yes!”.  Then I thought about it more and said .05.  Claire deferred, “Sure, whatever you said.  I think you’re right.” Maybe I didn’t have to think about that one so hard after all.  Do I get another sticker when we get home?