I have never been good at math and never enjoyed doing it throughout school. So when I married Chris, I was thrilled that he loved math and was even thinking about becoming an accountant at one point. Throughout our marriage he has always done any task that required any math -- paying bills, balancing checkbook, buying cars, homes, anything with money or numbers. And I'm thrilled I don't have to deal with it.
As Alec's math homework has gotten more difficult since he's been in GT math, I was always grateful as Chris sat at the table with him and explained his homework to him and they worked out problems together.
Well, since Chris' recent career change, he's not home every night like before. In fact, while he's training he won't be home for a few weeks. Unfortunately, Alec still has math homework he needs help with.
So last night I sat down with him and read this long word problem. My brain started hurting. I had no idea where to even start. Alec is watching me, knowing I'm not understanding it. Asking if he can call his dad for help. Of course, Chris doesn't answer his cell. So I tell Alec to just go to bed. And I'll talk to dad later that night so he can explain to me how to do it, then I'll show Alec in the morning.
I don't get ahold of my sweet husband until just before midnight. At that point he's all excited about the math problem, telling me how fun it is to figure out these equations. (A sale at Kohl's is fun, not equations)
So he begins explaining to me about x + 2x + 10 = blah-blah-blah. Towards the end as I'm writing it all out and Chris is going through step, by step, by step, I actually understood it and wasn't just saying I understood so he'd stop talking.
In the morning I was able to show Alec how to do his homework and was very proud of myself.
So besides great flight benefits from Chris' job, it looks like I'll be getting educated in math whether I like it or not.
Alec wanted me to post the problem on my blog, so I'd be embarrassed when everyone thought it was easy except for me, because I did a post about his zit. But I'm not. I like to believe there's others out there who don't know how to solve for x either.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
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5 comments:
That would totally be me... so so lost. I have had to call my niece for spelling words, or look them up on Dictonary.com, as you have seen this is not my strength.
If you can't get ahold of Chris, you can call me. I used to be pretty good at that stuff, and wouldn't mind the refresher course :) (I was forced to take Math Methods for Physicists, and barely passed if that makes you feel better)
Well Adrian LOVES LOVES math, so if you ever need to, call us too! Adrian would totally being willing to help out! As for me, I'm much more helpful with the writing/history/arty stuff so Adrian will be handling all that math homework in our house too!:)
way to go, tracy! way to conquer your math phobia and help alec at the same time! good thing gregory's not a pilot because calvin already has questions i can't answer. we have to write them down and ask gregory when he comes home....
Yes, Clint is also a nut for math. What a funny story! I'm proud of you for finding a way to help :)
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