Eva's tooth is getting better, on the antibiotics.

[conuly]

She has to take three doses a day for ten days, which conveniently backs her up into her pre-existing appointment.

When we were on the boat on the way to see her dad she asked me how many she takes. "Three a day, for ten days." Then she wanted to know how many she was taking that day. "You take one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night. That's three, but you didn't take one this morning. So today is only two." She clearly was thinking about this a bit, and then all of a sudden she comes out with "and so, on the eleventh day, I just take one, in the morning?"

Now, isn't that some good, clear mathematical thinking?

Ana did some review of long division on Sunday and got a little tangled up, so I sat down to help her. And here we are doing 6 into 5652 and we start out with, of course, 6 into 56. She piped up "nine times" and wrote it while I was still trying to remember what 6x9 IS. Still can't do her sevens, but she told me she's great at nines. Who the heck is great at their nines? Well, I'm happy for it anyway. She can do my nines, I'll do the sevens, Jenn can get the eights and my mom can handle the sixes. We can give the rest to Evangeline when she is older.

Comments

[sayga.livejournal.com]

The 9s are easy because of the 9-tricks

9*5=45 (you're times-ing by 5, and 1 less than 5 is 4, so you know it's going to start with a 4, and it'll add up to 9, so that makes a 4 and a 5: 45).
9*6=54 (again, digits in the answer add up to 9)
9*7=63
9*8=72
9*9=81
9*10=90

ALSO, 9*2=18 and 9*9=81 (18 backwards). 9*3 is the backwards answer of 9*8; 9*4 = inverted 9*7...etc

[conuly]

Those tricks, incidentally, work in any base system for the number right before the double digit number. That is, in base 8 the trick works for 7, in base 12 it works for 11 and so on.

[conuly]

But they don't help me remember them off the top of my head any faster, simply check it faster.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

What about the hand trick? Hold your hands out, say 2*9, put your second finger along down - you have 1 finger to the left and 8 to the right (18). And so on. Works for everything from 1*9 to 10*9.

[conuly]

Yeah, I know a neat way to multiply any number from 6 to 10 by any other number from 6 to 10 by using my fingers, but for whatever reason, instant recall of the nines isn't there. Few seconds later recall is, but I was flabbergasted by Ana's immediate response.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

It's weird how some tables stick better than others. When I was in year 3 (7-8 years old) I had to memorise all my times tables, then had to prove each one by being tested by my teacher. I did my 6s and 7s last out of all of them...realistically, why would 6 be any harder than 8, say?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Who the heck is great at their nines?

Who isn't? Nines are simples. You just count up for the first digit (0, 1, 2, 3, ...) and down for the second (9, 8, 7, 6, ...).

[conuly]

That only helps me check them, not remember them.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok.
Mind you, I've always been horrible with the sevens. Still am!