Parent's role as teacher...

Have you ever tried to teach something to your child? Yesterday night I was helping Declan with his homework. We were practising subtraction. Declan is not crazy about math however he can do it if he puts his mind to it. He was having trouble subtracting numbers so I showed him how I started subtracting.

Example: 4-2=?

Me: Okay Declan, which number is smaller?

Declan: The two is smaller.

Me: That's right, so we are going to count to 4 starting at the number 2. Here's the trick, you can't say "2" because that will mess this up. Instead of saying "2" you have to say "hmm".

(insert Declan laughing hysterically at his Mom saying "hmm")

Me: Okay Declan, let's count. Hmm - three - four. How many numbers did you actually say?

(insert Declan drooling because he's laughing too hard)

Declan (gasping for air) : I said two numbers.

Me: So the answer is two! Great job!

Declan: That was so fun! Let's do another one!

Ladies and Gentlemen...my child did subtraction with me for 1/2 an hour and loved every minute of it! Yay!!! Now if I could only find something like that for addition!