Rufus had a birthday soire to attend last Sunday afternoon, including hors d'ourves, live entertainment, and a loverly Spiderman theme. The trip to the tete-a-tete took about 10 minutes. We have 2 miles of dirt road left to go, when Rufus announces:
"Well, I know about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and...what's that other one called?"
Boudreaux: "Division."
R: "So what's next? How about negative numbers? Ma, can yuh teach me about those?"
Fatty, who was very busy passing notes and skirting trouble in algebra or geometry or calculus or episcopals or whatever that class was way way back in the hazy days of hair bands and high school: "Uh, I think so."
R: "Well, I'm listening, to let's get started."
I do my best to explain what little I can remember. I can at least get through the addition and subtraction.
Half mile of dirt road left to go.
R: "Okay, I've got that down" (and I ask him a few +/- questions to confirm) "now let's move on to multiplication of negative numbers."
Quarter mile of dirt road to go.
I explain the basics (2 negatives multiplied = a positive, negative x positive = negative).
R: "Alright, hit me with a quiz." He passes through a few questions and gets them right.
One-tenth of a mile of dirt road to go.
R: "If we hurry, you can explain the division stuff now."
F: "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" (that last's for about 1/10th of a mile)...."too late! We're here!" (Fatty singing the praises of the fates who let her arrive before having to admit that she really has very little idea about division and negative numbers...)
If they had told me to listen because I might have to explain it to my six year old on the way down a dirt road to an East Texus birthday party, then I might have paid better attention...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment