Just helped Emmett with his math homework. Prime factorization with exponents!

Hey cool, that's what I'm teaching... tomorrow... to my eighth graders.

Sigh.

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I think I'm safe from head explosions, as it sounds like they caught it early enough that we should be very happy

Yeah, it's utterly crappy that your mom has cancer, but at the same time there are a few of my brain cells doing a happy dance because it was caught early and there is a good prognosis.

Boo, hiss! for the Raq and vw UTIs

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Very nice. He's in fourth grade? I don't remember doing that until sixth.

Fifth grade.

Hey cool, that's what I'm teaching... tomorrow... to my eighth graders.

You know what helped? The whole factorization tree dohickey. We wound up writing it all down with the tree.

Me: "You know what a prime number is, right?"
Emmett: [dutily reciting] "A number which can only be divided by itself and one."
Me: "Perfect. So take 24."
Emmett: "2 times 12. And 12 breaks down into 2 times 6. And 6 breaks down into 3 times 2."
Me: "So you've got more than one 2, so you can do an exponent for that."
Emmett: "That's the part I don't get."
Me: "Just count up the 2s; that's the exponent. If you have four 2s, then it's 2 to the fourth."
Emmett: "So...there are three 2s. That's 2 to the third?"
Me: "Right! And how many 3s?"
Emmett: "One 3."
Me: "So it's 3 times...."
Emmett: "2 to the third?"
Me: "Right. Think about it. What's 2 times 2 times 2?"
Emmett: "8."
Me: "And 8 times 3 is..."
Emmett: "24!"

I felt very mathy.

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That must be so cool - to see the little lightbulb go off over his head....

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Sean my best to your mom

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Sean, here's to early detection and good medics. I hope this all goes as smoothly as possible.

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OK, this appears to be National Parents Getting Cancer Month, and it can just stop.

I am hoping for a full success on removing and treating your mom's cancer, Sean.

I need to order some toddler galoshes. It's raining buckets, which combines Mal's two favorite things: Outside and Water. He's frantic to be outdoors, but Robeez aren't going to cut it.

JZ, hang in there. The newborn stage is pretty awful, but it does get better, and in a few months you won't even remember how frazzled and tired and anxious and stressed you were. (If people did remember, the human race wouldn't survive).

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Hec's a Math Prof Rockstar! Or something!

((((PMM and Sean))))) Bloody hell.

Best Thing Evah: realising that, yes, I can plug my iPod into the computer's speakers and fill the whole classroom with my music, rather than just my head.

(eta...er, "rather than just FILL my head WITH MUSIC", that is, not "rather than just FILL THE ROOM WITH my head." Obviously. Er.)

Even Better Thing: my kids. So cute. So Halloweeny. So cute! Did I mention the cute? The cute SLEW me. Ded. We didn't have fancy dress to school, just after school, but still - damn. Cute. Bless. And they wrote brilliant poems today. And did good maths. And sang well. And were just omg unbelievably cute. OH! And Barney The Dog (the fluffy white dog who goes home every night with someone who was fabulous) had a costume too - I brought in little red devil horn hairclips (almost a santa hat effect, because they have white feathery fluff at the base) and clipped them on Barney's ears. SO CUTE! (I was also wearing devil's horns all day - the only member of staff to do so. And I had a witch's hat and cape that I got changed into at the end of the day, which gave the ruby slippers I was wearing a whole other connotation.)

NOT the best thing ever: a conversation with a random Thai lady (a mum? a TA? Who knows?) in which it became clear that she thought I was, in fact, Carmen. Which would be fine, I guess - but Carmen's 9 months pregnant. So she was going 'there's a white chick...short hair...enormously round, clearly must be pregnant - that'll be her then.'

I remain surprisingly chilled about this, but - yeah. Time to get my fat ass back to the gym.

...did I mention the part where my kids were cute? Because OH MY GOD the cute! Such cute! All your cute are belong to them!

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JZ, I'm sorry to hear about your rough day. It realy truly does get easier. I think I mentioned before, but it's so true - I clearly remember thinking when Ellie was about 2 weeks old that we would never survive to our 6 week appointment. (Not sure what I thougth would happen to us.) Anyway, I was so proud of myself when I actually got there because it wasn't *quite* as hard as it had been. Newborns really do suck the life right out of you. (Ha! I'm so funny. I didn't even mean it that way. )

Fay, I think Halloween would be such a nice time to be around so many cute kids in cute costumes. Sorry to hear about the random lady. How rude! Do Thai people celebrate Halloween or is it because you are at an American? school?

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Sean, I'm glad they caught it early. Strength and peace (and some big old BOREDOM) to you, and all your loved ones.

Hil, congrats!!!

JZ, you poor lovey. Is there anyone local to you who can spot you during the day, sometimes? You're still recovering.

Just helped Emmett with his math homework. Prime factorization with exponents!

Ben (also fifth grade) was doing that, recently. By any chance, Hec, does Emmett's school use the "Everyday Math" program (based on Chicago Math)?

Last year, they were measuring angles, including obtuse angles, (my fingers REALLY wanted to type that as 'obtuse Angels') which was hard for 9/10 year old minds. It was too many steps, all of which require precision. It was the first time Ben didn't instantly get math, and he was much put off by the concepts of studying and working for a subject that had always been his candy.

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