Calfgrit11 came home this week with the results of his first math quiz of the year: he failed it. Wifegrit and I were shocked. He was good in math throughout elementary, and, in fact, is actually in the advanced placement math in middle school.

So Thursday night I sat down with him to go over the test. He also had some math homework and I helped him with that. The homework was working with exponents and order of operations. He claimed to not understand what some of the terms were, like squared and cubed, but I think he just isn’t paying attention in class. I think he’s daydreaming, or sneak-reading a book, or something. But anyway, I went over it all with him. I explained what squared and cubed meant, and why those terms are used — squaring a number is how you get the area of a square, and cubing is how you get the area/volume of a cube. He likes learning the whys of things.

I don’t know where this cartoon comes from, so I don’t know how to properly credit it.

On his math class web site, there’s a cartoon illustration with an equation:

Although the cartoon had nothing to do with his homework, I thought it would be fun to explain it to him and let him work it out on paper. I explained how to convert a whole number to a fraction, reminded him how to change a fraction to a decimal, and I explained what pi is, (its value and its meaning). He did all the calculations on paper, himself, and I checked him on paper and then checked us both with a calculator. He wrote the answer, (169.69697, if I remember correctly — I’m not going to do the calc again, right now), on a piece of paper to take to school with him the next day. He wanted to show his teacher.

So we got his homework all done, and he went off to play before bedtime. The next afternoon, (Friday), Wifegrit called me after picking Calfgrit11 up from school.

“I want to congratulate you,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said, “for what?”

“For being a good daddy. Calfgrit11 got an A on his math test today. He said it was because you helped him learn his homework last night.”

Boom! From an F to an A in two days. My boy just needed someone to get and hold his undivided attention. He can understand and learn anything when he actually puts his mind to it. But when he has distractions, or just doesn’t have someone to focus his attention, he wanders and gets lost in his own world. I have no idea where he gets that. <looks away and whistles innocently>

Bullgrit

I took my boys to IHOP yesterday evening for dinner. Calfgrit7 gets mac & cheese and a fruit cup. Calfgrit11 gets pancakes and bacon. With the pancakes and bacon, came a side of hash browns. Over the years, we’ve tried to get the boys to try hash browns, but it’s been a while since the last attempt.

“Hash browns are just like french fries,” I said. “They’re breakfast french fries.”

Both boys looked at me suspiciously. The shredded brown stuff didn’t look appetizing to them. Nothing like french fries.

“Trust me,” I said. “You’ll like it.”

Calfgrit11 picked up one little piece of shredded potato, looked at it, and touched it to his tongue. He couldn’t have tasted more than three molecules, and he made this awful twisted face of disgust.

“Aw, come on!” I said. “Actually put a measurable amount in your mouth and taste it. French fries!”

They both picked up several pieces with their fingers and put them in their mouth. Calfgrit11 again made the disgusted face. Calfgrit7 at least was polite and simply said he didn’t like it.

Oh well. I tried to expand their food options. But it’s an impossible mission. For every 20 things we ask them to try, they find just one acceptable. Maybe.

Bullgrit

Calfgrit11 came up with the idea of us using this Father’s Day as another boys’ movie marathon day, like we did last year. Last year we watched the original Star Wars trilogy. This year the choice was the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Because we had a couple other things to do Sunday, we decided to start Saturday afternoon. At 4:00, I put in Fellowship of the Ring in the DVD player, and we three plopped down on the couch and matching chair.

Oh my god these moves are so incredibly long! FotR is almost 3 hours. Calfgrit7 surprised me by being able to sit through the whole movie. Well, “sit” isn’t the right word. He mostly stayed on the couch, but he was all over the couch, and me, the whole 3 hours.

Then Sunday morning, at 9:00, I put The Two Towers in the DVD player. My god, another long movie! They had a play date with a friend at 1:00, so we had to pause the movie for them to go there. When they got back, we continued the movie to the end. Then I put in the third movie, The Return of the King. Long. Movie. Hell! I had to take Calfgrit7 over to a friend’s house for a sleep over in the evening, so we had to pause RotK. They will continue with it Monday sometime.

As much as I like the LotR trilogy movies, I’m worn out on them now. I didn’t get outside this weekend other than taking the boys to their friends’ houses. I feel like I’ve missed an entire weekend. I needed some sun and exercise and play, but what I got was TV, darkness, and sitting on the couch all day.

Bullgrit

I mentioned how our previous attempt to camp out, (two weeks ago), in the backyard was rained out. Well, this weekend, we tried again.

I set up the tent in our backyard, right next to the play set. The boys  gathered up all their blankets and pillows and sleeping bags, and I pulled some extras out of the closet for us. They got their showers, brushed their teeth, got a couple of books each and one toy each, and we three headed out to the tent at 8:00. I zipped up the door, and we all snuggled into our blankets.

The evening air was full of noise: birds singing, the breeze in the trees, a plane flying overhead, cars passing by on the road, air conditioners turning on. Holy moly, but nighttime outside is damn noisy. The boys are used to sleeping in a quiet room with a fan running, so this was like trying to go to sleep on a construction site. So far as noise goes, I could probably sleep at a rock concert. I ended up falling asleep before they did.

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night. The sky was dark and the sounds were relatively quiet. But the hard ground was killing me. Even with a folded blanket and the tent floor under me, I just couldn’t get comfortable. I tried to avoid tossing and turning too much because I didn’t want my movements to wake either or both boys. I laid there a long time in discomfort. Eventually I reached around and found my cell phone to check the time. 10:56. Not even eleven o’clock yet? I’d been asleep only about two hours? There was no way I was going to make it through the night in the tent, on the ground.

I slowly and quietly got up, unzipped the tent door, stepped out, zipped up the tent door, and tip toed through the yard to the back door. Once inside the house, I opened the blinds of the den so I could see the backyard and the tent from the couch where I found comfort and sleep.

Early in the morning, just as the sun was starting to lighten the sky, Calfgrit7 came in the back door and said he couldn’t sleep. He wanted to go up to his bedroom, so I told him to go on. He ended up in bed with his mother.

A little while later, with the sun fully up, Calfgrit11 came in the back door. He wanted to go on up to his room and play, so I told him to go on. I lay on the couch for probably another half hour before it was time to start the day.

So in the end, camping out was noisy and uncomfortable — everything I thought it would be.

Bullgrit