Matthew has been working on a fun math workbook for school and we have been working together on the pages, some of the stuff he already knew how to do, and other stuff he has needed a bit of guidance on how to do it. But what has stuck out to me is that he seems to be able to do some math problems in his head... Stuff that I need to write down on paper to do on my own...
287 x 312 - I would need to write down all the steps on paper to solve this myself, but Matthew can do them on his own in his head - if allowed a bit of time and a quiet area to do them.
At first I was skeptical, thinking he was using a calculator to do the work, but then I had him do a problem right in front of me with no option for a calculator to come into the equation. He did it and got the answer right! And he has done several more in front of me as well... WITHOUT a calculator...
So having something good to report to the teacher, I emailed her to let her know of his new ability, and she seemed impressed wanting to have him show her how he does it at school. The first time she tried he did not have a quiet time to do it, and she reported mixed results. She said she would try again another time when it is quiet... Would you think this would lead to a call from the school principal? It did... :(
My guess is that Matthew felt pressure to get the answers done quickly and he ended up using a calculator to do the problems. When the teacher asked him about it he denied it, and not until he was taken to the principal's office did he admit that he had cheated and lied about it... The principal stated that they talked about it being wrong to cheat, and lying is even worse. I told him that I felt so horrible that I boasted about Matthew being good at doing something at home, and then it ended up him getting in trouble... To which he only responded, I don't know what he can do at home versus at school...
I told him thank you for letting me know (I don't know if he heard the sarcasm in my voice...)
Geesh... I can't seem to win...
I know that my child is doing better at home on this schoolwork... He is figuring out how to do these problems in his head & figuring out time concepts really well now.
What the heck is wrong with the classroom that he is unable to do them there? (I asked Matthew when he got home... he stated that is noisy and there is always stuff going on that distracts him)
He prompty got out his workbook and did another of the same type of problem right in front of me in his head... :)
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