No, no, no Seven is not even

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yes. Homework gets done on Saturday around here. So Sunday is fun-day🎶.

The Mom’s were getting the kids settled into it. When the troublemaker (always her)Max needed help.

The kids have these crappy tablets from the school to submit their weekend homework on.
Max’s kept giving her an incorrect and it couldn’t be submitted. She did it 3 times and then got “ask a parent for help”

Back at the farm, the Lil’wrekker (thankfully does not have children) whizzed up some Daiquiris. Yep. Strawberry. A classic and a fave.
Mom’s were on the deck giggling and sunbathing.

So Max comes to me Nana, she sez, this stupid thing won’t accept my math homework, it says ask a parent to help. I tell her, good, go ask one.
“I’m asking you. You’re a parent, says so in the name grandparent, anyway, Mom has a smoothie drink”.

I say no, no, no Nana don’t do math. Says so in my name NA-NA that’s another way to say no(teaching moment🙂).

And I’m asleep.
She was steadfast in her need of help.

So as she wouldn’t shut up, I gave in. “What is the problem?” Man oh man, I hate math.

She told me it was even and odd with number words.
Oh, I can handle this, I’m thinking.
This is Max tho’, gotta be cautious.
It was a list of number words. Appeared to be One to Fifteen.

She had one wrong. Seven.

I said that’s odd. She said “I know it won’t accept my answer” I say, no sweetie, the number seven is an odd number.

She, a little louder sez, “Nana, seven is even says so right in its name.”

How is this kid like this?

I put my initials in the parent box. Left a comment to the teacher. “You explain this, I can’t”
And hit submit.

Got a hug and went to sleep.

Adding: she will be 7yo on her birthday. That oughta be a fun day. Jeez!

Oh, and this is my 7th anniversary on the Dope.
Odd, I know.
:joy:

2

Steven might or might not be even, but Seven is always odd.

3

Put six of anything on the table – six coins, six toothpicks, whatever. Explain that an “even” number of things means that they can be divided into two equal groups. Show how six things can be divided into two groups of three. Then put them back together and add a seventh. Ask her to divide it into two equal groups.

4

Aaaaacccckkk.

Math…na na na na na.

(That’s no by the way)

5

Just remember, Beck, no matter how kind your grandchildren are, German children are kinder. :wink:

6

Just don’t accept a gift from them.

7

On a board dedicated to fighting ignorance and in a thread dedicated to helping children do their homework, I feel compelled to point out that the plural of Mom is Moms, not Mom’s, which is the possessive.

8

Why, thanks. Always willing to learn.

My tablet(which has a mind of its own) autocorrected it to that. I neglected to see it or really care very much.

I’ll endeavor to do mo’ better!

9

Heh, I once had a co-worker who thought odd and even numbers were an arbitrary concept that I made up.

I totally thought they were joking, but no. Not a stupid person by any means, just not into math.

10

Max may not grow up to be a mathematician, but she may have a bright future as an etymologist. Or a lawyer.

I notice that her reasoning that seven is even is quite similar to her reasoning that a grandparent is a parent.

11

She’s very intelligent. Just a bit of a rebel.
She can give a good argument and even if it’s wrong she’s forceful.
I’m shooting for criminal attorney, as an career choice.

12

You might try explaining that–unlike grandparents–numbers are an abstract concept.
The word represents a numeral which represents a certain amount of toothpicks.

Grandma isn’t like toothpicks.
:slight_smile:

13

I can’t speak of math concepts. At. All.
I’d rather not try.

I had her recite, 2 4 6 8. She can do it to number 60. I think. I shut her up before I found out how high she could go.

So she gets the number thing

It’s the word that bothered her so much.
Why do schools do this to kids?
It’s like that old thing of “word problems”. Just a bunch of confusion, IMO

I never see numbers in word form in my head.
I usually speak ASL so the numbers are either numerals or fingers. Very basic.
The kids are getting very good at ASL as a second language.
I hope it’s not confusing them. I lay in bed thinking about it. Knowing speakers of other languages than their own is considered a plus.
And we carry on.

14

What do you mean? Why do schools do what to kids?

15

I kinda thought that ^^ was the point of the story. Kid marches to the beat of her own drummer, but she is, for sure, at least consistent about it.

Yes, being bilingual or multilingual is never a bad thing. You can cross that off your “worry” list.

16

You didn’t do what I think you did, did you?
Oh…You did! You did!

17

Ok. It’s like a 30 ingredient recipe as opposed to a 10 ingredient recipe that creates essentially the same dish.

Only the cleverest gastro/chef/expert can nuance the subtle difference. Certainly not a second grader.

Using numerals or number words makes not even the slightest difference to a kid understanding math.
It may help in spelling, I don’t think they lean heavily on spelling regular words(spelling bees are for words no one ever heard of) in schools anymore.
Spelling is supposed to be acquired by early reading programs.

I think these written in text math problems are just a way to fill time in a school day. I knew one elementary teacher who hated them. Because of the confusion. Parental phone calls and nasty notes.

The preprinted math work books schools so often rely on for early students are a pet peeve of mine.
Teacher has time to go for a vape or a coffee while her aide plays on her phone in the classroom. Yeah, those should be outlawed.
Teacher stands in front of the whiteboard and teaches math concepts.
Not sending workbook pages to a crappy tablet over the weekend.

7 is 7 and is odd. Easy for your kid. Easy for my kid.

God forbid some weird parents named their kid Five or Three or Agent 99.

18

It’s just like with a live teacher, tell the machine the answer it wants to hear.

19

Putting some toothpicks on a table and showing Max how they can or cannot be divided into two equal groups is a math challenge? You need to do better!

I am absolutely no math wizard – actually pretty poor in the subject – but even I could eventually appreciate how integral calculus could let you compute the exact area under any curve given the equation for that curve. Calculus delves into infinities and infinitesimals and produces rational answers. Do not deprive your offspring of these wonders. Lay out the six and seven objects and teach her the difference between odd and even so that this seven-year-old can go on to become the next Nobel Prize winner and not the next climate change denier motivated by contarianism.

20

She understands even and odd numbers pretty well.
She told me the other day she had “1 Odd sister and Even 2 brothers”.
I thought that a fairly enlightened turn of phrase for a 6.5 year old.
Also I laughed like crazy.

It’s the word 7(seven) that got to her.