More on Math

When you're a mathaholic, you really, really like doing math.  Which is why Nate, who started the 3rd grade program on April 1, is now about 2/3 of the way through the 6th grade program.  He's doing upwards of 2 hours a day, still loving every minute of it.  Some snippets:

--The other day we called his assigned tutor to ask about a problem that neither of us understood.  She explained how to do it, but I still didn't quite get it, so I asked her to explain it a different way.  In the time it took her to give me an alternate explanation, Nate, who had understood the first explanation, solved the problem and the 3 others needed to pass the section and move on, and then shushed his tutor with the words, "Shh!  It's giving me a new lecture and I need to listen!  Goodbye!" and hung up on her.

-- He's gotten a few problems wrong from sheer lack of vocabulary and life experience.  In reviewing his work, I've learned that Nate doesn't know what "formerly" means (as in, if the item is 25% off and formerly cost $62, how much is it now?), has no experience with a "budget" (as in, if it would cost $5 per person to survey 100,000 people to find out their views on an issue, and the budget for the project is only $10,000, is this a good time to use a sample?), and doesn't know from "candid photos" (again with the samples, if the yearbook editors want to ensure that each kid is in at least one candid photo, should they use a sample?).  And, in the bigger picture, he just doesn't have the judgment to really understand when it makes sense to use a sample.  Every time this issue comes up, it cracks me up; it just underscores the absurdity of a tiny little person who is not quite 4 feet tall doing 6th grade math.

--It's really, really humbling to try and keep up.  The kid learned base 5 the other day, and while both Steve and I actually physically shuddered when it popped up in a lecture, Nate took to it immediately.  (To be fair, Steve got it very quickly too; I was a bit behind but kind of get it now ... mostly.  Or at least sort of.)  By the end of that day, he was completely fluent in base 3, base 4, base 7, any other base we gave him, and, as kids in the new millenium are apparently expected to be, binary code (computer language).  To which I say: What.Ever.  I am fine with being left behind on that one.

It's like math is his native tongue.  And we have approximately 800 pieces of scratch paper covered in equations littered all over the house to prove it.

Comments

[Nate]

i'M 7.94 now.

[Nate]

Not now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nate]

Do you know my secret password? Guess.