Two Cliques = ?

[revena]

Some of you may be aware that I tutor a seven-year-old in math and reading. Those of you who know this probably also know that while her reading is ok, and getting better all the time, her math skills (or the lack thereof) frequently leave me baffled. A week ago, we seriously spent twenty minutes going over how one ten and two ones is the same as twelve. I explained it, repeated it, asked her what one ten and two ones equalled, and she said... "Nine?" Her next guess was "Eleven?"

So anyway, I was just whining to tdj, and:

Me: *stares blearily into middle distance*
Me: I hate Mondays
Him: It draws to a close.
Me: yeah, but I've still got tutoring
Him: D'oh!
Me: yeah
Me: with the ever-amusing "what does one ten and two ones equal?" problem
Him: Bring dolls. Ten dolls becomes a "clique".
Me: *laugh*
Me: "What's one clique plus two dolls?"
Him: Bingo!
Me: "Two broken-hearted outcasts?"
Him: Math ~and~ anthropology.

Comments

[cavalaxis]

Hah! OMG that makes me CRY!

::goes back to pretending to not care omg::

[revena.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to figure out what happens when you try to combine cliques of fashion dolls with cliques of action figures...

[cavalaxis]

Haven't you seen the stop-motion animated commercial where GI Joe drives up in his little plastic jeep and steals Barbie away from Ken?

[revena.livejournal.com]

Nope! Sounds entertaining.

[cavalaxis]

Mpeg link here (8mb). It's a crappy video, but the video is worth it.

[revena.livejournal.com]

Oh, I had seen that before! I didn't remember until the music started playing, though.

Awesomes. :-D

[missmiah.livejournal.com]

I tutored once, a very long time ago, but she was closer to eleven.

Do you have any sticks or props? Sometimes it's easier to comprehend with a visual. One batch of ten sticks, add a new stick, add a second = ? kind of thing.

[revena.livejournal.com]

We use counters for some things, but the big problem is not so much understanding what numbers stand for - it's more that she's learned that if she guesses for long enough, eventually she'll either get the right answer, or the adult working with her will get bored and tell her.

But it's ok. I can out-stubborn even a seven-year-old. Eventually, she'll figure out that paying attention will take less time, after all.