B found the place value disks very helpful from Singapore Math in explaining what was going on in double digit multiplication and long division. He is up to a long review now of both multiplication and division, he does need more practice. He can do these skills, but with the wait since the beginning of the chapter, they have become foggy. He keeps asking me simple questions from earlier in the chapter. Some algorithms he uses confidently, some things stump him. Miquon didn’t emphasize vocabulary, so he often asks “What is a quotient again Mom?”
One thing he doesn’t need much help with now is remembering the times tables: he has earned the $20!
Yesterday he was working a word problem, and I got impatient trying to explain it without algebra. So I used algebra, but instead of a variable, I used a “frame” from Miquon. A shape that you use as a variable, but make large enough to write the number inside when you finish the problem.
I wound up with an expression like this: 10+2x+ 2x+x =3000.
I asked B how many x there were (it was actually triangle frames, but I don’t have a triangle frame available on this keyboard.) Ben saw how the expression could easily be 5x + 10 = 3000. As I lead him through the final steps, he said it was cool, and gave me the “My Mom is an Evil Genius” Look. I told him it was just algebra, and it made life easier once you knew some tricks.