-My kids do 'worksheets' in all sorts of places so we have a few clipboards, one is the old kind with the big silver 'clip'. And GMC thought it was loads of fun to tilt it up and down and goof off while he should have been working on writing.

So why is this a good part of my day? because learning about 'fun house' effects is more useful than knowing how to write neatly in today's computer world, besides it made us smile.

-I do let my kids in on mathematical shortcuts, but they don't always remember them. Today the whole simple fast way to multiply by 100 was forgotten by GMC for some reason.

So I told him to multiply the old fashioned way (write it down) Of course you aught to know, no one in the house likes to write things down, his math is always a problem number beside a final answer, with the occasional barely legible scratch work somewhere else on the paper.


I said "multiply by 1"

him-6.2 but..." more whining

Me- "now multiply by 10, write it down
10
* 6.2 (stacked)

and do the work"

him- ....62..

Me- "OK now "

Him interrupting- "Never mind I can do it now."