I realized the other day, while listening to my friend J talk about the Great Harvest Bread Company not far from our house, that I have been doing an awful amount of mental math since becoming a mother.
Which is a terrible, terrible thing, since I am practically morally opposed to mathematics in general.
I fought through it in high school, with more than ethical assistance from the math teacher.
I tackled the required College Algebra course in college...three times.
I even took a statistics course one summer, in preparation for a degree in Counseling (about which I changed my mind).
As an English teacher, thankfully I had limited contact or need for math - except, of course, for every paper I graded. Percentages became my strong suit.
As a mom, I figured my math requirements would basically be fractions (recipes) and adding (days/months/years for my children's ages).
However, this is not the case. I have had this formula rumbling around in my head since Leah was born:
Let x be the amount of time it takes to put children into their carseats, remove them, and put them back in again (about 5 minutes)
Let y be the time spent on behavior of said children (shushing, correcting, catching, restraining, etc.)
Let z be the time needed to do business in shop of choice. You know, the fun ones.
So, if x + y divided by z = 0, I don't make the trip to that store.
Which is why most of my shopping is done either at Walmart, Target, or the mall.
Like a waterfall in slow motion, Part One
2 years ago
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6 comments:
Liz, if x + y < z, then you don't go in.
Hmm, you must have recanted.
Anyway, I don't care. I'm focusing on nap time.
It looks like Lyz isn't the one to tutor L & B through middle school algebra, Aaron the dad is a possibility, and Aaron the uncle is the clear choice all the way up through Fourier and LaPlace transforms.
With two weeks on the road coming up, I've been thinking a lot about how to tutor algebra from the road and how much home telepresence corporate IT might allow me to have. Might have to pick up a couple cheap web cams at Best Buy this weekend...
Showing how multiplication distributes over addition just isn't something you can talk your way through on the cell phone, even if the minutes are free..
I actually messed up grammatically (oh, the irony), and wanted to avoid the inevitable "lol you can't write" comments. But much love.
Our poor kids have no chance in math. I did okay in school, but I think it is really boring. Even though I might complain about the weirdness of people there is alot to say about the positives of newness in contrast to the cold hard facts of math. =) I do think aaron was right though Liz's equation sounded more exciting verbally.
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