27 Mar 2008

Advanced Curriculum

Wednesday, 4 pm, somewhere in Norway

After a few tense and teary moments (tense = me, teary = the boy), we finally figured out exactly what needed to be studied for today's math test.

Fractions!

The assigned study sheet was procured through yet another trek back to school, whereafter we discussed the basics of denominators and adding and subtracting. The practice questions - courtesy of the study sheet - were in the vein of:

1/4 + 2/4 = ?

The boy was doing fine, but I was getting frazzled, trying to get him to study and finish my own work, when Mike offered to step in as homework monitor.

And promptly discarded the study sheet in favour of his own practice questions:

1/2 + 2/5 – 4/7 +1/7 = ?

Forget about learning to walk before you run, because, you know, his boy is soooo beyond that.

And never mind the boy looking more bewildered and confused than ever...

25 comments:

Laura said...

It must be a man thing...my hubby does the same with my kids!

Anonymous said...

Even though my girls are only in 2nd and 3rd grade, I've started handing the math homework over to my husband. I sometimes just don't get the way the schools are teaching math these days.

Chantal said...

I swear to go homework is going to drive me to an early grave (and D is only in grade 1) :(

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

Do you want me to SEND you an 8 legged dinner plate? You sound sort of disappointed that you don't have one!

Hallie :)

Amy Y said...

I am SO not looking forward to fractions... I sucked in school and I'm sure I've gotten nothing but worse! :)

Mighty Morphin' Mama said...

Poor kid! My dh is great at fractions and I suck. My boys are learning the Imperial system as well as metric and Imperial really helped with fractions. but still. ick.

Julie Pippert said...

"Oh good luck," I say, running away quickly to put my head back in the sand that this will ever be our life (LOL).

Amy said...

Math was never my favorite subject!

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

Perhaps he should just start with a little calculus.

Suburban Correspondent said...

Sounds like fun! And, in response to your comment about preteen boys at my blog (register an e-mail on your Blogger profile page so I can answer you directly!), age eleven or so is when they suddenly cannot hear you. Your voice is so annoying to them, they just block it out. They are practicing to be husbands, I guess.

The good news is that boys respond well to written instructions (they just hate the voice). Girls, however, hate you personally; so they despise written notes as much as verbal instructions.

Not all girls, of course. But, in general, this is the way the chips seem to fall.

Ice Cream said...

Was this your husband, or mine? Mine does this all the time. My son asks how to draw a box the way mommy does and my husband starts teaching a full lesson on perspective and birds eye view vs. worms eye view. Last week I asked him to tie one of the kids' shoes. Ten minutes later I find the kid on the couch crying with only one shoe tied. I asked what happened and he said, "Dad showed me how he tied this one but then he left and I can't remember what he did, Waaaaaa"

Got a love 'em.

Mary Beth said...

I still have nightmares about fractions and I really like math.

Aliki2006 said...

Yuck to fractions, and yuck to math in general. I always try and push the math homework Scott's way, although I know this isn't a good thing!

Rima said...

That sounds a lot like the way my dad used to try to help teach me math. I HATED IT. I barely scraped by in high school and then in college, I majored in languages and was able to meet my math and science requirements by taking Psychology and Earth Science. I thought I would never have to use math again, and then I became a technical writer. Gah.

Melissa said...

that is sooooo my dad! He would usually leave me more confused that before ;)

dawn klinge said...

That sounds so much like my husband also. My kids will ask a question like "Why is the sky blue?" and my husband will give them a 1 hour scientific lecture on it!

Annie said...

hate fractions...always have...

Stomper Girl said...

33/70??

Am I right, can you ask him?

Anonymous said...

Definitely a man thing. Mr. Hot does this, too.

Valarie said...

Ha! Yes, my husband has been banned from homework help for brining my daughter to tears in almost the same situation! Men!!

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

Remember, fractions are our FRIENDS. :)

Is it wrong that I like math? Please don't hate me! :)

Steph said...

I'm a math geek and actually had to figure it out before moving on ;-)

In our house, we are both giving our 6-year-old kindergartener math way beyond her years....

Kat said...

Oh yuck. I am not looking forward to helping with math homework. That will have to be hubby's job.

Karen MEG said...

Mike, Mike, leave your day job at work :). Sheesh!

My Dad also taught me math when I was a kid. Multiplication and division by the time I was in grade 2. Yup, he is a Chinese engineer ... sigh.

Funny, Liam just came home today telling me that he talked about fractions and he knows what they are. So I asked him ... "What are they...?" and he said "I don't remember". I guess we have to tweak those Asian math genes a bit LOL!

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