math...

As much as I love capturing life events like Christmas, birthdays, vacations, etc. I also really have an appreciation for photos that document every day life.  They may not be the photos that I frame and put up on the walls but they tell a story.

Our story.

I like knowing that someday we can look back and say "remember when…" and there will be images that remind us of those times.

For instance, Ashlyn is a really excellent student.  She studies hard and she tries her hardest in all of her classes.  For years now Ashlyn has told us that she isn't good at math.  She frequently says that she "just doesn't get it" and that she is "just not a math person".  I totally get it as I am not a "math person" myself.

The thing is…Ashlyn IS a math person.

She DOES get it.

When Ashlyn brought her report card home after the first quarter of middle school she had all A's and one B, including a 96.4% in math!  I am sorry, but someone who "doesn't get math" does not pull off a 96.4%.  I know; I studied, tried as hard as I could and the highest grade I ever got in math was a 79%.
Many times I think that we assume we aren't good at something just because it is a bit more challenging for us than other things.  Reading, English, Art…those things all came fairly easily for me.  I rarely had to study in those classes to pull off good grades.

Math on the other hand was always a struggle.  The word problems never made sense and the concepts did not come easily.  Ashlyn has learned not to come to me if she needs help with her math homework.  She will literally say, "I only have math homework today but it's fractions so I'll just wait for dad to get home."

I've tried helping and it just goes nowhere.  Thank God, Chris can help because if it's possible, I think the word problems have gotten more confusing.  There are even times when Chris will sit down with Ashlyn and they can't even figure out what they are asking for because the questions are so convoluted.  Common core is no joke.

This happened to be one of those times.  Chris was helping Ashlyn with some online math homework and Ashlyn told him she thought she had the answer.  He had come up with a different answer and said that it didn't make sense.  They entered Chris' answer and it turned out to be incorrect.  Ashlyn plugged in her own answer and got quite a bit of satisfaction out of the fact that she was correct.  
Confusion and Smug.  

Chris explained to Ashlyn that the method she used wasn't accurate.  He realized that he had done his work wrong which led to the incorrect answer.  He showed her his method on another, more difficult problem...
and it turned out he was right and he got the correct answer.  This is Chris exclaiming, "BOOM!" when his method was correct.  Coincidentally,  Ashlyn says this all the time and I always wondered where she got it from…now I know.  

I am truly proud of Ashlyn.  She works so hard in every area of her life.  She strives to be a good student, a loving daughter, and a kind and caring friend.  She is super smart…thankfully, she is smart enough to know not to come to mom for assistance in math.