When I was a kid, we went to grade school from kindergarten through the sixth grade. Then we had junior high for seventh and eighth grade. High school was ninth through twelfth. The earliest that I remember any serious math work was in the fourth grade.
My fourth grade teacher was Mrs. Wiebert. She was extremely old school and when it came to 4th grade math, she wanted no part of the “new math” that was being taught. The new math was introducing kids to concepts that required visualizing the numbers rather than just memorizing flash cards.
We are adding fractions in our heads because we understood how the numbers related to the parts of a whole. This was actually a revolutionary for our time and now it is the normal process.
Kids today are solving equations as young as seven years old and learning advanced math in the second grade. If parents need help with the homework assignments their kids bring home, they can get online and sign up for free tutors and free homework help. When I was in school, we didn’t get any help unless we sat next to a smart kid in class.
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The only thing I could find in the office that wasn’t already claimed with someone’s name on it was a big Idaho potato in the vegetable bin of the refrigerator. Usually I keep a few things stashed in the freezer or in a desk drawer. I guess I ate the last of the freezer dinners some time ago and forgot to replace it.
So lunch today was a baked potato. We keep butter in the refrigerator and sometimes there is dressing or dip. But no such luck today. It was baked with butter and a little salt and pepper.
It could have been worse. It actually tasted good and was nutritious. So tonight I’m going to the grocery store and stocking up on a week’s worth of food to keep at the office.
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Two years ago I bought a netbook. I thought it was very cool to have a tiny computer. It does not work with Windows, but Linux is a good operating system for basic computing. The primary reason I bought it was for internet access while waiting for long periods, such as at the doctors office or at work waiting for a truck to arrive with product.
The netbook works great other than the keyboard is really tiny and my fingers seem to hit two keys with every keystroke instead of just one. I seem to spend a lot of time using spell check and fixing what I typed. So it is not good for sending long messages or anything that requires a lot of typing.
The netbooks are relatively inexpensive. I bought mine for under $200 and have already gotten my money’s worth.
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