Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

Tonight, Bryan suggested Jacob try to work some on his own on the fundamentals of working with fractions and percentages and finding x as a percentage of y or what the percentage discount is if the original price is y and it sells for x, and I had flashbacks to middle and high school math. They weren’t pretty flashbacks (and surprisingly enough, I did well in math until I hit calculus – calculus was my brick wall – but I had to work a lot harder in math than in other subjects). I remember crying at the kitchen table, begging my dad to just help me with the first step of the problem, that if he could just help me get the problem started, I could figure the rest out, and he would simply ask, “well, what’s the first step?” Rarely (in my memory, anyway) did he lose his temper, but I sure lost my cool a lot. Thankfully, tonight anyway, Jacob’s math lesson wasn’t so traumatic or dramatic.

Just after that, Jacob asked Dad (because of course, to J, Bryan is no longer “Daddy”) to quiz him over his science test review. In listening to this quizzing, I again was reminded of the way my Dad and Mom would quiz me for tests. Bryan didn’t just ask the point-blank questions on the review sheet, because Jacob has that memorized. He asked more indepth questions and shifted the order of things around to make sure Jacob truly understood the concepts and didn’t just have the review sheet memorized. And when he needs to think about an answer, he uses the same stalling techniques – repeating the question, drawing out his words as he thinks of the answer, staring at the ceiling as if the answer might pop out of it – that I remember using. I suppose some things truly are universal.

But, so far, even when he’s had to think about the answer, he’s getting them right. I’d say J’s prepared for tomorrow’s test. And just now, as they came to the end of the review, when Bryan asked if there was anything else he wanted to work on, Jacob actually listed the section he’d had to think the most about during review. (Perhaps that’s just a stall tactic to get to stay up later, but I’m choosing to see it as his dedication to learning about simple machines and force in science class. Let me wear my rose colored glasses tonight, thankyouverymuch).

Listening to Jacob answer reinforces for me  just how smart he really is. He understands this stuff forward and backward and in any order (even if his handwriting is still atrocious). I’m so proud of him, and I’m sure that I don’t tell him enough, especially lately. So, J, in case you google me again and find this entry, you are an outstanding young man – smart, funny, caring, and at least a zillion other wonderful qualities. I love you.

**sorry this post rambled a bit–it started out to be one thing and sort of morphed as I wrote–but, hey, it’s my blog and I’ll ramble if I want to. 🙂 **