'Rithmetic

I've blogged about Reading which I've always loved. I've blogged about Writing which I learned to love. And that just leaves the third 'R'--'Rithmetic.

If I demonstrated thickness between my ears when it came to writing I have to say my brain was a brick wall when it came to anything Math related. I did just fine with adding and subtracting but when they decided I should learn Multiplication and Division---well, let's just say it took a long time and I wasn't the top student in the class. But I learned and rocked right along until I hit Algebra I in high school. And I'm suprised I didn't send poor Mr. Adams straight to the crazy house! That man wanted me to solve for x (or y or z or whatever) and he thought surely I could understand those problems that read a train left station A at a certain time and a train left station B at a certain time and when would they meet up!! It was almost too much for me to absorb but I did--more or less.

And when I got to college, I thanked Mr. Adams over and over again in my mind. Whether he realized it or not, he taught me well and while I was not a stellar student, I did manage to get through the college Math class. And I worked my way through three more years thinking I was done with Math. WRONG!!! I got to my senior year and discovered that while I had enough Math credits to graduate I was one short of the number required to get a teaching certificate. So I took a deep breath and enrolled in a one credit course called Calculator Programming. Sounds easy? WRONG again! Understand that this was back in the day when the university had one computer and it was located in a house sized building! And it was slower than molasses. Our calculators were huge in comparison to today's pocket models.  I'm still not sure what I learned in Calculator Programming but I do know that I spent an inordinate amount of time in the professor's office for tutoring and nearly drove my poor husband nuts at night as he tutored me some more. But I passed, got the credit, got the diploma and the teaching certificate.

But DO NOT WORRY---I can do first grade math really, really well. I can even do second grade math really, really well. Beyond that? I haven't given that a shot in a very long time! All three of my children managed to get through school without a lot of help from their mother in the math department. Thank God for their daddy.

I love teaching first graders and I love teaching history. I'll leave the math to others who are far more capable than me!