Thursday, October 8, 2009

The student becomes the teacher

Last night I sat down to help Mary with her homework. They were working on multiplying 2-digit by 1-digit numbers using mental math. That's the kind of thing I hate. 

She said, "Don't worry, Mom. I'll teach you. Here's the first problem, 46 x 7. How would you break down 46?"

"Four times 10, plus six," I dutifully answer.

"That's right! So we can write the first part like this: (40 x 7). And then you have 6 left over, so what do you do next?"

"Six times seven."

"Good job! So then we take (40 x 7) + (6 x 7) and what do you get?"

My mental calculator whirs and clicks until I say, a little too loudly, "322!"

"See, Mom? You did it. You are smarter than most of my slow-witted classmates."

Notice she said MOST. 

But I will take the math compliments where I can get them, thank you very much.

7 comments:

Emmy said...

Lol! I love that she called her classmates slow-witted. (And I didn't know that trick either)

Anonymous said...

Haha! That is hilarious!

Anonymous said...

Haha! That is hilarious!

dave said...

I love Mary.

Mopsie said...

Prediction: People who "get" numbers will go far. Love her self-confidence. (And a blue ribbon to you, too!)
Your blog looks very autumn-y. I like it.

Denalee said...

Please thank Mary for me ... I'll now be able to do multiplication much more quickly!

The Hardy's said...

Call me dumb...maybe I'm just showing that I'm way out of touch but I don't quite get it. I'm really in trouble when my kids get older!