The perfect answer

"I can't wait to do Beast Academy!" Benjamin told me over the weekend. "I'm just so excited about it!"

We're switching math curriculums for him because he didn't seem to enjoy Singapore Math very much (though Miriam is really thriving on it). He got a little flustered by the "entrance exam" but passed it just fine so he should be ready for the curriculum I had my eye on. 

"Well, you'll have to wait for a while," I said. "I haven't ordered it yet."

"Oh, no problem," he told me. "I'm not planning on doing any math for the rest of the school year. I finished my curriculum and that's good enough for me. And then I can have the whole summer off and then I'll be excited to start Beast Academy."

"So you can wait, then?" I said.

"I guess so, yeah," he said. 

Unfortunately for him, not doing any more math isn't really an option for him. Even though he's finished with his curriculum we're trying to keep his brain nimble with daily practice on either Prodigy (a website) or on leftover sheets from Miriam's grade 3 math curriculum. She did almost everything in that book, to be honest, but there's a smattering of pages in there that are blank. I've been tearing those out and letting Benjamin have at them (he's technically in grade 2 this year). 

Today he did a worksheet on area (one of his favourite units from Singapore Math, and, as it so happens, the last unit we did) and I almost died of cuteness overload when I came across this answer:

Prompt: Describe area in your own words.

His answer: Fun, easy math every child should learn how to do!

It reminded me of that scene from Miss Congeniality where the beauty pageant host asks Miss Rhode Island to "describe [her] perfect date" and she says, "I'd have to say April 25th, because it's not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket!"



When we were going over his work I asked him to "define" area in his own words and he said, "It's like the inside of a shape," which was more along the lines of what the original prompt was going for, I think.

We'll have to remember to celebrate April 25th in a few days...