Today’s Math Lesson

G is now 6 ½ years old, a very bright little boy. He has a very sweet spirit and I love him to death – his big brown eyes make my heart melt. But sometimes………Well, let me tell you about our math lesson today.

We had a page full of clock faces. He had to figure out what time each clock was showing. Underneath each clock, there were two answers, one correct answer and one wrong answer. Beside each choice was an oval. You know the “Color in the Oval Next to the Correct Answer” kind of oval.

He had no problem reading the time on each clock, but before he could fill in any ovals, he had to get a feel for the lay of the land. I could see the wheels turning. He scoped out the rows and columns, then planned out how to attack the page. “Should I fill in the ovals from left to right, moving down the page row by row? Do I move from top to bottom and move over column by column? I know!” (Mom sees that light bulb going off behind his eyes) “I’ll start at the top of the first column, move down and then over to the bottom of the next column, working my way to the top. Then over to the top of the third column and down. Up, down, up down. Ok, now I can get started.”

Now, the directions say to color in the oval next to the correct answer, like the one in the sample problem. He painstakingly fills in the oval, as neatly and completely as he possibly can. But his pencil doesn’t come close to filling in that oval as dark as the black ink used in printing the sample oval. He nearly wore a hole through to the next page trying to ‘blacken’ his oval! Next he realizes his pencil point has strayed outside the line. Thank the Lord for those big pink school erasers!

Well, after a short conference and a nudge from time to time he was off and running. Don’t ask me how long math took us this morning – though we are learning to tell time, I did not watch the clock. Having lunch nearly ready is a great motivator – once he realized it was nearly time to eat, he finished in good time!