Math=Death

I really debated whether I should put a picture of some math stuff, or a picture of me shooting myself in the head on this post!  I figured that I would go the nicer route, even thought a gun to the head would be the perfect representation of how I feel right now.

I just finished teaching Makenna how to divide.  It only took THREE HOURS!  Really, three hours.  You may be wondering how it could possibly take tree hours, and I get that.  That was exactly what I was wondering as well.  But it did.

Makenna is artsy.  She loves to read, sing, imagine, draw, and all of that.  But math and spelling, well they just don't click.  I feel bad for her, but honestly, I feel worse for me.  Jerk, I know.

So we sit down to divide, and she acts like she has never seen it before, even though we just did this last week.  This is not uncommon.  So, I help her with 10 problems, then 20, and then think, "OK I bet she gets it even though she acts like she doesn't" so I have her give one a try.  (At this point we are an hour into this adventure I call death)  I give her a problem.  She looks at it with a blank stare.  I ask her what the first step is.  She doesn't know.

At this point I am pulling out my hair, frustrated, and past the point of being able to help.  Just then Steve walks in.  He looks at me, looks at her, looks at the math page and says, "Brandi, you need to walk away.  Just walk away and I will help her."  For a second I was relieved and wished him luck.  Next thing I know he walks her through a problem (just as I did 8 million times) and then he writes down this problem:

                              2/45435920760932457345

I LOST IT!  "What in the  ______ is that?  Are you crazy?  She doesn't get 2/35 and you are giving her that monster?  _______ NO!  Don't confuse her.  Don't erase what I just taught her.  My life is _____ right now, don't you see that?"  At this point I am crying and screaming and he is laughing and trying to hug me.  Can you say math induced meltdown?

He feels that she can do the problem, and while doing it learn to divide.  They spend about 30 minutes on the problem.  They finish, and VOILA, she looks at the next problem like it is the first division problem she has ever seen.  Suddenly he got me.

To make a long boring story shorter, she finally got it (YEAH)!  Only because we finally did the problem 2/35 about 50 times.  Really, 50 times.  I think that we will both always remember that 2/35 =17r1.  Once I quit changing the numbers and doing the same problem over and over she understood.  That is just how her mind needed to learn.  Wish I knew that three hours ago, but oh well.  Man, these artsy brains work in mysterious ways.  If this keeps up I am taking her to a tutor!

Love ya Kenna!  What is 2/35?  Ha ha ha!