Cash in your chips

Matilda shares the same lack of patience and understanding that I have when it comes to numbers.

Couple this with the head scratching way maths is taught these days and it can make for some fiery exchanges as the train of thought involved is delicately unravelled. My preferred process is something akin to Bernard Black doing his taxes.

With a little help from Owen, we were able to unpick it, take some deep breaths and set to work. I could see that she was having trouble attributing a value to something ie. a block represents 10, a circle represents 1 and then applying this to simple addition. Why the old way of ADDING THE NUMBERS TOGETHER is no longer acceptable is beyond me, but I digress.

Somehow inspiration struck and I dug out our poker set with the different coloured chips to remind her of how we assign a value to each colour when we played the game. Cracked it! She was off and ploughing through her homework. 

I was left to sit back, congratulate myself for my own ingenuity and to contemplate a life in teaching, because it seems pretty damn easy as long as you have the right combination of swearing, shouting, deep breathing, gambling experience and assistance from a bright 8-year old. 

With confirmation that the schools will definitely not be reopening before March, it would seem that for the foreseeable future for at least two days a week, I will be granted the opportunity to practice for this new vocation.

Enrolment for dunkyc’s “Magic of Movie Making Masterclass” is now open!