Baby Einstein

This Baby Einstein I've adopted is starting to irritate me. I simply can't abide having someone smarter than I in the house.

Charlie came home one day last week saying something about being moved to a different math class on Jan 20 (semester change), a lower class. When I had looked at his grade sheet a couple of weeks earlier, he had all A's and B's in math with a D in just one module, and he was able to show me what module was and that he now understood it, so I wasn't concerned about that.

But moving to a lower math class? Time to talk to the teacher and find out what's going on.

It seems that they were actually trying to move Charlie ahead at one point. His teacher felt, and another teacher who subbed for his classes for a while agreed, that Charlie was so strong in math he needed to move up to an algebra class next semester, so they were trying to figure out how to re-work his schedule to get him into an algebra class. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out, since each of his classes next semester is mandatory and is only offered by one teacher at one specific time. So they are planning to keep him in his regular math class (hence the "lower" sign he used) instead of moving him up.

Thing is, Charlie really wants to learn algebra. And before my brain was fully engaged and cognizant of what I was about to say, I told him the only other option I could see was to get an algebra textbook from the public library and for me to teach him that at home on the weekends. He jumped up and said, "Let's go!"

Ahem....I should probably mention that I grew up terrified of math. One of the reasons I delayed college is that I was afraid of math. Once I got started, I actually got A's, but I had to put in a LOT of hard work to do it, and I'm still not comfortable saying that I'm good at math. So the realization that Charlie's first algebra skills were going to depend on me not only remembering all of that crap but actually being able to explain it IN SIGN LANGUAGE struck terror in my heart all over again.

Unfortunately, we got to the library 5 minutes before they closed, so there was plenty of time to get a librarian to show us where the algebra books were and choose one or two. No backing out of this one.

We came home, and Charlie glanced through the books while I was preparing dinner. I kept hoping maybe he would look at it, decide it looks too hard, and quietly set it aside. Noooooo, not ChinaBoy. As soon as dinner was over, I curled up in my easy chair with my laptop to answer some e-mail, and there he is at my shoulder, signing "Help me." Help you what? "Algebra." He wants his first lesson RIGHT NOW.

So we sat down and cracked the book. Introductory stuff. Good--I can remember this part, I'm still with the program. Explaining it sometimes was a bit of a challenge, but we got through the first few topics. It's very easy with Charlie to tell when he truly understands something--you can see the lightbulb going on.

That was Friday night.

On Saturday, I worked and then ran some errands, and when I got home, I sat down with the laptop. Sure enough, within 5 minutes, he's at my elbow. "Help me, algebra."

So we hit the books again.

After only two lessons, he now understands (basics, mind you) prime numbers, factoring, exponents, variables, constants, commutative law, and order of operations; he is solving (simple) algebraic exponential expressions if given values for x and y; he understands area and perimeter of basic geometric shapes and can solve for those values with an algebraic expression; and he understands that the angles of a triangle must equal 180 degrees and how to solve for a missing side of a right triangle.

Okay, maybe not an Einstein (yet), but he is really soaking this stuff up at warp speed, and trying to stay one step ahead of him is starting to get on my last freakin' nerve!

Oh, no...I'm sitting here blogging from my easy chair with my laptop in my lap.

And I hear him coming down the stairs....