Creepy Math Skills

After the holiday leads to new subjects in school - for Allison that means multiplication and division.  I'm looking forward to this for her.  Why?  The girl can memorize and she already knows quite a few sets from the math apps on the iPhone.  Plus, she doesn't yet seem to mind me quizzing her on them.  Now - the "sprint tests" in class might not be her forte - but simply the fact that she knows the material is good enough for me.

Of course, they are learning multiplication and division not just by memorizing the times tables - but applying it with WORD PROBLEMS.  Seriously - I think they are overcompensating with the vast quantity of word problems these kids see in math.  Everything is a word problem - except geometry.  I haven't seen any geometry word problems yet.  I suppose that's coming soon too.

Anyway - so Allison was working on a word problem for homework and I was explaining that while 4x5=20, and 5x4=20 were exactly the same thing - 20/5, and 5/20 gave you two totally different answers.  I always use cookies and people to explain division - if you have 20 cookies and 5 people - how many would each person get - "4" says Allison.  Ok, if you have 5 cookies and 20 people - would each person get 4 - "No."  Ok, see - not the same. 

This is the time at which Jacob pipes in "each person would get a quarter of a cookie.  You just need to cut the cookies into quarters, Mom."  He was - at the time - passing through the kitchen on his way somewhere else.  I believe I first looked at him - dumbstruck - trying to think if he was actually correct.  He was.  Geez- no wonder he pitches a fit about having to color in groups of 10 fish on his math homework then count them (last night's battle).  Perhaps I will have to talk with his teacher about some alternatives.