Short entry today, which is unfortunate, considering I didn't post anything at all this past weekend. I'm not abandoning this blog (I can't let down my double digit readership); I've just been really busy of late, with very specific things, not just, like, life or kids or whatnot. I served as a judge at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament last weekend (I wrote nearly 2,000 words about it here, if you are so inclined to read about it), and then we are leaving early tomorrow to visit S's parents in Tampa and then take a cruise to Honduras and Mexico. It's a big family to-do for my father-in-law's 80th birthday.
I'll admit I was quite apprehensive about the idea of a cruise a first. Floating in the ocean, in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from civilization, just doesn't strike me as very relaxing. I'm not a grandeur-of-the-open-sea type of guy. But after having some time to warm up to the idea and looking online at the amenities on the ship and the excursions you can book when you dock, I'm excited for it -- or at least I'm not totally anxious about it, which is probably the best I can hope for at the moment. I'm sure once it's actually in progress I'll really enjoy it -- that's how these things seem to go.
It's pretty late and I have to wake up super early tomorrow (like 4:00 am early), but before I go I want to share the latest math exploits of Lil' S2. The other morning before school we had the following conversation.
Him: Daddy, how many 60s are in 400?
Me: Well, let's see, 6 times 60 is 360, so it's 6 with a remainder of 40.
Him: Oh, okay, then there are 16 hours and 40 mins in 1,000 minutes!
Me: Is that... [Can't do arithmetic in head quickly enough, pull out calculator on my phone and punch in 1,000 / 60 and get the answer 16.666667] You're right! How'd you figure that out!
Him: Well, you helped me with last part. I know that there are 10 100s in 1,000, but if you only take 60 instead of 100 then you have 40 left over and 40 10s is 400. So when you told me there are 6 hours and 40 minutes in 400, then I knew it had to be 16 hours and 40 minutes in 1,000 minutes.
Me: Woah! Good job!
That is some advanced reasoning for a six-year-old, and I'm not just saying that because he's my son. I'd be willing to bet a substantial portion of the adult American population could not figure that out, even if I gave them 400 / 60. S and I have been trying to figure out a good way to nurture this math talent. We want to send him to Mathnasium (Lil' S1 has been doing it for a while), but his reading skills aren't strong enough to handle the word problems yet. I think this hurts him in the classroom as well. I don't think his teachers recognize his natural aptitude in math because he can't always follow the written instructions, so he gets things wrong. I guess we need to teach him to read better to improve his math skills.
Alright, now I'm done.
Until next time...
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