Logan’s Practical Math

Logan gave us some sweets that his sister Brittainy and Mu brought from Turkey. We knew they were very special and ate them with ceremony. Ummm! Exquisite! As a welcoming nod, I baked chocolate chip cookies for them.

As I picked up the spatula, I said to Logan, “These are for your family, but I baked one extra for you right now. Which one would you like to have?”

He chose his cookie, and I began putting the rest on a paper plate.

“How many are there?” he wanted to know. I told him, and he stated there were seven people in his house. I countered with the number five, because I didn’t think they’d give the baby one. I’m not sure who number seven was. ???

It takes a while to sharpen one’s skills, but I remembered the last time Logan begged for a granola bar. It was dinnertime, and we said no. He said he would take it to school for snack the next day. Reluctantly, we agreed. At his walkway, he looked back and saw us watching. Did he manage to unwrap it and eat it before reaching his front door? Probably. How could I make sure these cookies would make it over there? Taking a piece of scrap paper, I drew circles, like ones I had seen his on math homework.

Logan looked at the circles and picked up the pencil. He wrote “15 cookies”. I didn’t feel guilty for having given him one, because any six-year-old who can spell cookie by himself deserves one, don’t you think? Note the chocolate smudges at the bottom of the paper. I think of a cookie as clean food, but that isn’t necessarily so.

My reasoning was, if Logan knew how many cookies were sent for each person, he wouldn’t break the set. I asked, “How many cookies should each person get?”

I knew his homework involved adding and subtracting, not division. Logan didn’t know the answer. I explained there were five rows of three. No clue. Taking the pencil, I pointed to each row in turn and said, “Mama, Papa, Brittainy, Mu ….”

“I know! I know! Three!” he said.

Shawn texted that when Logan came in the house, “He announced loudly that everyone gets three cookies!”

The next text was, “Over n over! Ha ha”

Logan passed with flying colors. My question for anyone with grade school children is, how did I do with my first foray into new math?