Math Fun

Aidan brings home a folder every day from school. The folder contains any notes from the teacher, any announcements from the school and any completed and scored worksheets Aidan did during the day.

I like to look at all the worksheets to both get an idea of what Aidan is working on in school and to see if there is anything we need to work on at home to help him with his school work. Over his year and one week of school, I have seen worksheets with big stars and worksheets with one or two marked wrong. I never saw a worksheet with everything marked wrong. Until today, that is.

Everything. Every question! Wrong. No star at the top of the sheet - just a note from the teacher to Aidan which said "see me." It was a sea of red cross outs and checks. Not good. Even worse, it was a math worksheet - an area in which Aidan has naturally excelled.

I was concerned and figured I better review the math questions so we could do some review over the weekend at home to help. The worksheet listed a number, had a blank space, and then listed another number. In essence, the student was required to sequentially fill in the blank so that 12, ___, 14 became 12, 13, 14.

I'll be honest. When I saw how easy the problems were, I grew even more concerned. We have big problems here people. Apparently, my first grader can't count in double digits.

Aidan's answer was 12, 26, 14. The numbers he put in the blanks weren't even close to being in order. They made absolutely no sense.

After a minute, I looked at it again and comprehension dawned on me. I laughed and called Aidan over to talk.

Instead of filling in all the numbers in sequential order, Aidan was adding them all. I guess the kid can count after all. Whew.