School at the Daley household could hardly have been called normal, since Grandma was there as a distraction and Mommy was sick for the first part of my visit. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my glimpse into the official, sit-at-the-table side of their 24/7 educational process.
Jonathan is not at the moment as excited about math as he is about reading—unlike his Aunt Janet at that age, for whom reading was all right but math was a bowl full of candy. He's doing well, though, with basic addition and subtraction (and even some simple multiplication and division), and enjoys the "math paths" that Grandma sends him in the mail, problems like this one:
Hm, maybe I did problems like that when I was little, but I can't figure out what you mean by them now?!?!?! Does he fill out more than just the missing circle?
Just the missing circle. The blank is in different places in different puzzles. It's harder because he must decide the operation as well as the number. Eventually I hope to give him Krypto-like problems. :)
I see. I wasn't sure if it was a negative five and the operation would be written on the line, which seemed rather complicated. I see he's supposed to see that if he adds the same number back he'll get his original number - clever. I guess I owe a lot to my mommy for teaching me to think smarter (at least when it comes to math).
Don't forget the debt you owe to Pizza Hut. :) Their paper place mats were perfect for writing sequence puzzles to keep children entertained whilst awaiting the pizza's arrival.
I would have done the same for Jonathan, but the Melting Pot only had paper napkins. Maybe I should have used them anyway—many a scientific and business breakthrough has been sketched out on a restaurant napkin! Did you know that that's why 5 1/4 inch floppy disks are (were) that size?
