Left of the door is a dresser for Calfgrit8, on which there is:
a large blue lamp
a fish bowl full of sea shells
a fish bowl full of rocks
a piggy bank
an assortment of Lego pieces

Above the dresser is a corkboard full of tacked up pictures, paper crafts, and a Spider-Man calendar. Above the board are large, fabric letters spelling out both boys’ names.

On the other side of the dresser is a trash can and a dirty clothes hamper with a shirt sleeve hanging out. On the floor, in front of the hamper is a pair of underwear and pajama bottoms.

Right of the door is a bookshelf packed with probably 50 thin books. On top of the shelf is a sloppy stack of at least a dozen more books, a plastic box full of Pokemon cards, and a white sock (is it clean or dirty?).

Next is a chest of drawers for Calfgrit4, on which there is:
a wood coin bank
a wooden train with CG4’s name spelled out
a craft necklace
a few Lego pieces

Next is a kid-sized table against the corner, with two kid-sized chairs, on which is a large assortment of Lego pieces from probably ten different sets.

On the right wall is a large abstract painting of a lion (this is a sweet picture, but it really looks out of place among all the other decor) and a large framed poster of Spider-Man surrounded by all his villains (this more fits in with the other things in the room).

The far wall has a large box window, with hundreds of Lego pieces and random small toys completely covering the sill seat.

Next is the multi-colored toy box with small shelves above it, all filled with a random assortment of medium and small toys.

The toy box sits up against the bunk beds. The lower bunk, Calfgrit4’s bed, has Spider-Man stickers on the back wall, a tractor and truck blanket, and about a dozen stuffed animals. The biggest stuffed animal is a horse as big as its owner.

The upper bunk, Calfgrit8’s bed, has a poster of Star Wars Lego characters on the wall, a dinosaur blanket, and probably 20 stuffed animals. The biggest stuffed animal is a brown bear as big as CG8’s little brother.

Slid partially out from under the bed is a box of Bionicle action figures. The room floor is mostly clear, but there is a Bionacle, a clone trooper action figure, and several loose pieces of Lego scattered about.

The last wall has two doors for the closet. One door is halfway open, revealing a shelf of various games.

The room, as a whole, is in what we consider a “moderately neat” state. It can get far messier, and anything neater lasts only about 20 minutes. When I look at their room, I often wonder what about it they are going to remember most fondly.

Bullgrit

Today’s post is by Cowgrit.
_________________________

I used to work in a pediatric office as a nurse. This was before I had kids. It was quite a learning experience for me. I learned about growth, development, and disease. But most of all, I learned kids say whatever is on their minds. No filters! And they say the funniest things. And so do their parents.

Here are some examples:

I asked a little girl about 3 years old to take off her shoes while we weigh her. She asked her mom, “Mommy, what are they going to do with my shoes?”

I asked a 7-year-old and his mom what his symptoms were (why where they coming to the doctor). The boy said, “I’m allergic to school.”

A pregnant mom came in with her 4 year old for his checkup. She was showing him an ultrasound of him as a baby. She said “Look, here is a picture of you as a little baby, Preston!” He said, ”That’s Preston in a spaceship!”

I took a mom and her 3 young children back to an examination room. The mom asked me “Are we going to see a boy or girl doctor?” She laughed at herself, then exclaimed, “I need to get out more; I am around these young kids too much. Are we going to see a women or man doctor?”

I took a teenage boy and his mom to an examination room. The teenager was here for a checkup. I told the young man to get undressed and put the drape over himself. The teenager told his mom to leave the room. As she was leaving she paused as she had a second thought. She poked her head back into the room and said, “You did wear clean underwear?”

A 3-year-old boy said, “I came here as a baby, and they fixed me.” His mom said, “Yes, you were a baby, now what are you?” He said, “I am Trevor!”

Cowgrit

Calfgrit8 had some homework that he couldn’t figure out. Cowgrit tried to help him with it, but she ended up coming to me: “Can you help CG8 with his homework?”

Cowgrit said she tried to help him, but she couldn’t figure out how to do it. I thought she was probably distracted by Calfgrit4, or maybe she was hurried with cooking dinner. I mean, it’s second grade homework, how difficult can it be?

The homework in question:

Pay the Bill

Solve.
Draw the coins to show the amount of change due.

A. Penny has $2.00. She buys an ice cream sundae for $1.89. How much change will she receive?

B. Percy has $1.00. He buys a small drink for $0.60. How much change will he receive?

C. Pip has $3.00. He buys a hamburger for $2.35. How much change will he receive?

. . . etc.

Looking over each problem, I immediately thought, “11 cents (a dime and a penny), 40 cents (four dimes), 65 cents (two quarters, a dime, and a nickel). . .” etc. Yeah, this isn’t complicated.

I sat down with Calfgrit8 and we talked through the problems a bit. “We haven’t learned how to subtract three-digit numbers, yet,” he explained.

“OK,” I said, “we can do it tonight.”

I wrote down
_200
-189

Then I sat there a minute looking at the equation.

“How do I do it, Dad?” CG8 asked.

“Um,” I answered, “well, ah, give me just a moment.”

I fiddled with the numbers a bit. I marked out the end zero and wrote “10” above it. Then I marked out the middle zero and wrote “9” above it. I thought that was it, but when I did the subtraction from right to left, I got 111 (instead of 011). How did this pattern change the beginning two to a one?

Wait a minute. I couldn’t remember actually how to do the borrowing from one digit to another. How many years has it been since I did subtraction on paper? Twenty years? Thirty years?

I took one of the other equations
_300
-235

I fiddled with the number again, but I couldn’t figure out how the old thing worked. I said to CG8, “You’ve done two-digit subtraction, right? I’ve seen you do that.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed.

“OK,” I said, “show me how you do that.”

He did 20 – 18.

“Great,” I said, “now lets use that to figure out how to do three-digit numbers.”

I wrote down the 200 – 189 equation again, and let him work it out, extrapolating what he knew for two-digit numbers. He did it correctly on his first try. And I saw how it was supposed to be done. Man, but that made me feel like an idiot.

CG8 quickly went through all six of his change problems, getting the right answer each time. Once he saw how it worked, it was all his. I wanted to give him some more three-digit numbers to subtract, but dinner was almost ready, and we still had another step to do on the homework.

I showed him how he could draw the change: I made a circle and wrote “1” in it for the penny, and then another circle with a “5” for the nickel. He got the pattern and used this for writing the change for each problem.

11 cents = circle-10, circle-1
40 cents = circle-10, circle-10, circle-10, circle-10
65 cents = circle-50, circle-5, circle-10
etc.

Afterward, Cowgrit and I talked about the homework. She, like me, could immediately tell the answer, but she couldn’t figure out how to explain it to CG8. “Yeah,” I agreed, “I ended up getting him to figure it out on his own.”

I wonder if helping with his homework will get easier or harder for me as his math problems get more advanced. I think I’m actually looking forward to him needing help balancing equations and solving for X.

Bullgrit

It was coming up on bed time for the boys, and Cowgrit was directing Calfgrit8 to the bath. I was in the den with Calfgrit4.

Little CG4 was nearly bouncing off the walls with energy. Because of the way the day had gone, he hadn’t been outside for any exercise all day. That’s a bad, bad situation for a 4-year-old at 7:00 at night. He desperately needed to do something physical, or he’d just explode all over the house.

I was too worn out right then to get down and play rough with him on the floor, but I had to keep him away from the bathroom and his brother, else his energy would get CG8 all riled up and baths would be a crazy mess. Off the top of my head, I said, “Why don’t you run around in circles?”

“Why?” he asked.

“See how many times you can run around,” I urged. “I’ll count for you.”

To my surprise, he started running in a circle in the middle of the den. “Count, Daddy!”

I started counting his revolutions: “3, 4, 5, 6 . . .” He was running at full speed, round and round and round, in a 5-foot diameter circle. The image was like someone was playing back film too fast.

“. . . 12, 13, 14, 15 . . .” Normally, running in the house is not something we condone. But under the circumstances, I was fine with it.

“. . . 24, 25, 26, 27. . .” Wow, I was impressed. He wasn’t slowing down. I wanted to get a camera and record this exercise, but I was afraid that if I moved, it would break the spell.

“. . . 33, 34, 35, 36 . . .” Oh my God! At 38, he dove onto the sofa. “Oh, you can do more than that!” I goaded. He got up and went around again.

“. . . 41, 42, 43, 44 . . .” At 45, he collapsed in the center of the den. He hit with a thud, rested about three seconds, and then jumped back up. I swear, I think that boy could throw himself off a 20-story building and the impact on the sidewalk wouldn’t bother him.

“Can you run to fifty?” I asked.

“No,” he said, “I’m done running.”

No amount of talk from me could get him to run any more. He wanted some water. 45 laps! And although he was breathing heavy, he didn’t act tired. He just got bored of running. At least it did seem to burn off some of the energy he had bottled up.

Bullgrit