Math Lessons From Daddy

Daddy has a great way of teaching the kids at the most random and unexpected moments. Tonight at dinner he played a little fill-in-the-blanks spelling game with Priya while we were waiting for the food to be served. With what little space was left on the kids menu coloring page, he decided to teach her how to write large numbers. It went a little something like this...

Daddy: "How do you write 10 thousand?"
Priya: "I don't know"
Daddy: "You know how many zeros come at the end of ten, right?"
Priya: "Yes, one"
Daddy: "How many zeros come at the end of 1 thousand?"
Priya: "3"
Daddy: "So, how many zeros are at the end of 10 thousand."
Priya: "4?"
Daddy: "Now, write it."
Priya: *writing* 10000

So, it seemingly went very well and after a couple of these involving only 1's and 0's he moved on to something a little more tricky, but still we both thought she could handle it. The lesson ended like this...

Daddy: "Now, I want you to write down the number exactly as I'm saying it."
Priya: "ok"
Daddy: "2 hundred thousand, five hundred forty-three"
Priya: *concentrating and carefully writing* 20000050043
Daddy and Mommy: *giggling* "That's pretty good, but it's not right."
Priya: "Are we gonna go?"
Daddy: "Let me finish my beer first."
Priya: "Dad, you're always specific of your beer."

I don't know what that last part means... but she was finished with the lesson. She doesn't like being wrong and it can oftentimes be a show-stopper. Tonight she actually handled it well, but she was ready to move on. It was time to do some shopping... for her.

You see a few days ago Priya had her conference at school and the teacher had nothing but good things to say about her progress and behavior in class. So, Daddy promised her a special treat. He has been trying to teach her the value of saving money, but thus far has been unsuccessful in his attempts. This time, the special treat was going to be a choice of 3 things.

(1) Allow her to retrieve one of her toys that had been taken away. These were removed and stored in the basement to be returned on a one-a-day basis for good behavior. She currently has about 5 items still waiting down there.

(2) Give her $5.00 to buy a toy of her choice TODAY.

(3) Give her $10.00 to put in her piggy bank for future use. The one condition is that this $10 can only be spent after she has earned back all the toys that are locked up in the basement... so it's likely she'll have to wait at least 5 days to spend it. But, if she can wait, she'll end up with a better toy because she'll be able to spend double the money on it. $10 instead of $5.

Of course, she chose #2... instant gratification. We explained and tried to sway her decision but to no avail. We even asked her to call some friends or ask other people because she suspected that we were scheming to change her mind. In the end, we told her that she had to sleep on it and decide the next day. Turns out, she still wants option #2.

Alright, so we are in the Target tonight getting ready to spend the $5. Each time she picked something that was more than $5, we reminded her... "If you had decided on the $10 and waited until you'd earned all your toys back, you could get that." Time and time again she saw how much better the $10 items were and so we decided to give her one more chance to change her choice. "Priya, if you want, you can go with the $10... we'll buy this now and then hold on to it until you've earned all your basement toys back. Are you sure you don't want to change your decision?".

Can you believe this girl STILL didn't want to switch? I'm not sure if she was being stubborn, greedy or just anxious... but we ended up spending $5 and she went home with a new toy TONIGHT. Patience will come with time, I suppose.

A New Cousin Brother

We've been anticipating his arrival and he's finally here... only 2 days later than expected. Sanjay and Priya have a new cousin brother, the first boy cousin for them. And we became an Uncle and Aunt all over again... how exciting! We can't wait to meet the little guy in person, but for now we'll just drool over the lovely baby photos of this cutie pie. Keep 'em coming Mom and Dad.

Giving Up The Nap

Sanjay is 3 and if it were completely up to him, he'd be done with the napping... ready to move on from that stage of growing up. So, as usual, I think, "What's in it for me?". Can I benefit from him staying awake through the long afternoon hours? Do I really need that extra time to run errands? Probably not. In fact, giving up his nap means I have to give up my me-time (that's what they are calling it these days, right?). The afternoon is my down time, time that is built into my schedule for just being at home relaxing... not cooking, not cleaning. Whether it's napping with Sanjay, spending time catching up on my reality tv, finishing up those scrapbook pages or dawdling on the internet... it's time that I always PLAN on spending at home. I'm not ready to give this up yet, but I think I'm losing the battle.

These days I'll put him in his room and he'll stay in there for a good hour and a half quietly playing and secretly removing his clothes. By the time I check on him, he's usually partially undressed and pushing cars around on the carpet or maybe hanging out in his closet reading a book. So, I give in and let him come out of his room. Then at 5pm, after nearly falling asleep eating dinner... I find him on the couch like this. Unfortunately, this picture doesn't capture the heavy breathing that accompanied the moment, but if you look closely I think you can see the sweat beads on his hairline.



Dear boy... looks like you're not ready to give it up either...

The Eggs Are Ready

Priya was out of school because of the snow we received yesterday, so it was a good time to color the eggs. Now we're just awaiting the Easter bunny this Sunday so we can go on the egg hunt to find them.

"We dyed easter eggs today. We put them in the shelters and took them out." - Sanjay

Last Snowfall of the Year?

Let's hope so. It was a beautiful snowy Sunday... but I'm done with winter and ready to welcome the warmer spring air. After dinner this evening the kids played outside with Daddy. He made them a really fun sled hill on the steps of the deck and then threw snowballs at them in the yard!

Happy Shamrock Day!

Are you wearing your green glasses??