The trouble with maths

The trouble with maths is this. It’s hard. You have to practise it. Daily.

This is what the Kumon method proscribes. And so Child No 3, who is only eight years old, and whom I have signed up to Kumon Maths, must unhappily open the dread folder every morning and take out a little pamphlet filled with columns of sums. The idea is that if you do them every morning, quickly, you get to do them automatically and for the rest of your adult life, will never have to wonder about what 7×8 is.

The great thing about 7×8, incidentally, is that it comes out as 56.

So, 5, 6, 7, 8. That’s the way to remember this one. But how about six times nine? Or seven times seven? It’s grim, I admit.

My daughter hates doing the Kumon booklet. Balks at it. So tormented by her miserable little face am I that I sneakily have started to help her. I know this is not really very Helicopterish but I am not infallible.

I do one column and she does the one beside it. We race through the booklet. We can get one finished in about 4.5 minutes. Yes, it’s cheating, but the thing about Kumon is that this is one afterschool task which Helicopter Dad insists on. It’s NOT MY GIG!!!