Pragmatist
Pragmatist

Being an after-school nanny is interesting (I think that's the word).  I have two girls: one age 8 in the third grade, and the other age 11 in the sixth grade.

I used to sit here and type away during chat with my sister, and occasionally holler "What's going on there?"  And maybe intercede in an argument.  Remember how bossy Big Sister could be?  Now I take them directly to their home after school. Works out a whole lot better.

They always have math homework, except on Fridays.  The teachers are nice about leaving weekends free.    Anyway...their Mom was sort of complaining about having to check their math homework along with everything else that an away-from-home-working Mom has to do.  So I volunteered.  Little did I know what I was getting into! 

When you were in the third grade, did you add and subtract five-digit numbers?  Did you know your timesies?  And the guzintas?  Oh, yeah, and square root?  If you did, you're way far ahead of me.

But to the point:

This younger girl is a bit flighty.  Her mind is off somewhere, maybe another universe.  She does well with the first half of the assignment, then just loses all focus with the second half.  She'll have as many as 25 problems to solve for homework, and math isn't her greatest interest.

Give you an example.  The problem asks: how much more or less is 13 than 3 x 4?  What did she do?  She multiplied 13 by 3 then by 4, and came up with an answer that made no sense whatsoever.  I tried to show her that there were two problems here.  Had her erase everything but the 13, and the read the rest of the problem. She tackled it the same way.  Erase all that.  OK now.  You have the number 13, then you have the problem 3 x 4.  OH! all of a sudden it clicked.  But if this had been in the first half of the assignment, she would have read it correctly the first time.  In the last half of the assignment, I think she just makes up numbers.

Now the older girl doesn't have nearly the homework her sister has.  At least in math.  And she's pretty accurate, so I check her work first.  She'll have maybe two that need to be corrected, then she goes out and rides her bike.  She learned to ride a bike in ONE DAY!!  She fell once.  I can't remember how many times I fell when I was learning, but I can tell you for sure it wasn't only once.

The school will be putting on Fiddler On The Roof.  She thought she would try for Golda, but she got Yenta instead, and she's really please with the role.  I get a free ticket   One of my canes will be featured when Yenta is on stage.

So when Mom comes home, the homework has been checked and corrected.  Now all she has to do is make dinner, do the laundry, her own homework, etc. etc. etc.  I've told her to make a list of chores for the girls to help her maintain the home.  I got the "evil eye" from the older girl.  But it was with a smile.

Then I come home, thankful that they are in their home, and I'm in mine.

Shalom