Mental Math Is Going To Make Me Mental

Amanda called me over a couple nights ago to help her on problem number 5 on her math homework.  She was supposed to add 35 + 28 using a 100 number chart, so she started telling me she needed to go down and over.  Down and over.  Over and down.

And I was like, "What?  Down and what?" as I clawed around for my reading glasses.

I told her, "Look.  If you want to add that just add 5 + 8 and carry the one."

Right, internet?  I mean, is that not how you add?

If you do not have a child currently enrolled in second grade, let me be the first to tell you that is not how you add nowadays.  The way we learned to add is wrong.

When I showed them how to add, the three of them FREAKED OUT.  There was drama.  People were telling me I didn't know what I was doing.  I was wrong.  I don't know anything.  I had to get Greg and a glass of wine and a box of Oreos and our reading glasses.

So imagine my surprise when this is how you add 35 + 28 now.  You can do it like this in THREE steps.

Or you can do it like this in TWO steps.

But whatever you do, you cannot do it like this.

"We are doing mental math.", Sarah told me.

It's mental, alright.

"Really?", Greg asked.  "If they don't teach them to add in columns, what will they do when they get to 1,345,300 + 2,399,344?"

"Run for congress?", I suggested.

Are You Willing To Change?

Gregory got a solar balloon for his birthday.  It was supposed to demonstrate how air heats up and causes the balloon to rise.

Instead our experiment demonstrated that living in a windy hellhole will cause your balloon to rise, crash into the car, and rip open, ruining your birthday gift.  Gosh, he was so upset.

I was so upset when I saw this article yesterday about McDonald's saying they were "giving up" putting pink slime in their hamburger meat.

If you haven't already seen that article, you must read it.  It is just beyond gross.  The pink slime is full of beef that would normally be inedible and is treated with ammonium hydroxide and then ground up into a pink slime.

A long, long time ago, I knew a lady who had a toddler with severe behavioral issues.  His issues were so bad, he was diagnosed as being bipolar at the age of five and put on slew of heavy duty adult pharmaceuticals to control him.  It was only after listening to her ordeal for over a year that it came to light that she fed the child McDonald's three times a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I will never forget the moment when the realization hit me that she was actually poisoning her own child.

She was willing to pay for the most expensive treatments available, take him to the best doctors, get him the best drugs money could buy, but she wasn't willing to nourish him with the benefit of healthy, wholesome food.  I lost touch with her.  I wonder what happened to him?  Isn't it strange that people will do anything but change their diet?

I run into that all the time.  People seem very reluctant to make small modifications to their diet.

Like if a child has asthma, sometimes they benefit immensely from taking cow's milk out of their diet.  Not always, but sometimes and it's such a simple thing to do.

I'll throw out there, "Have you ever tried eliminating milk to see if it makes a difference?"

"Oh, NO.  No, I wouldn't eliminate milk." is a common reaction.

Why not?  Wouldn't it be easier to eliminate milk than give your child breathing treatments???????

I don't get it.  If what you've been doing hasn't been working for you, doesn't common sense dictate you try something different?????

Which brings me around to the fact that after I went on the intensive 3 week juicing fast this winter, I can now eat gluten again after a 2 year hiatus.  I have no way to explain that medically.  My only guess for the sudden tolerance is that perhaps the juice fast healed my gut and perhaps I had leaky gut syndrome causing my gluten intolerance.

I'm still limiting gluten because I've become accustomed to living without it, but when I do eat it, I am no longer having an immune reaction.  I used to get severe fatigue and fibromyalgia-type aches.  It will be interesting to me to see if my gut will again become permeable over time, or if adding juice daily will keep it healthy enough.

Whatever happens, I'm willing to change what I'm doing to remain healthy.  Are you?

I'm Running Out Of Time To Cure Everyone

Gregory and Sarah's teacher has been out of school all week and on Monday their substitute never showed up, so they split the classroom up and divided them among the other three teachers.

All three got to be in Amanda's classroom that day.  Amanda said it was only sort of oh-kay.

When Sarah and Gregory's teacher didn't come again today, I called her at home to find out if she was okay.  Her mother had a stroke on Sunday and her father is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.  Her parents come in and volunteer three times a week in Gregory and Sarah's class.  They are like surrogate grandparents to all the kids, so I feel so bad for what she's going through.

It's so difficult when your parents get to that stage.   My sister and I went through that stage so young with our mother and the stress of it is unbearable.

Their teacher's situation is compounded by the fact her father is no longer able to care for himself without her mother.  I could see this as a long term game changer for the kids.  I hope not, but I could certainly understand her taking time off or retiring.

So, anyway, I offered to jump in and help with whatever she needs done at school so she can focus on her parents.  The kids are fine, I told her.

Speaking of Alzheimer's, did anyone see the latest on coconut oil slowing or preventing Alzheimer's?  From that article:

In this case, insulin problems prevent brain cells from accepting glucose, their primary fuel. Without it, they eventually die.

But there is an alternative fuel -- ketones, which cells easily accept. Ketones are metabolized in the liver after you eat medium chain triglicerides, found in coconut oil.

Dr. Newport added coconut oil to her husband Steve's diet. Just two weeks later, he took the clock test again and demonstrated stunning improvement.

The article talks about coconut oil also having an impact on those with Parkinson's disease.  My neighbor Jo's husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's this last year.  I had her running over to Trader's to pick some up for Andy.  I think I've been driving her crazy with all my crazy suggestion to cure him.

Whatever it takes, OKAY, Jo???

Once I cure Andy, I'm going to start working on curing Gregory and Sarah's teacher's father.

I start working in 15 days, I've got to save the world QUICKLY.

I Laugh At Myself

We had our second orthodontist appointment yesterday.  There were no jugglers or carnival acts.  This practice is a father/son and the father has been in business for 35 years.  I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking to both father and son.

He gave her a very thorough examination and noted all the issues with malocclusion, like her overbite and  crossbite.

She also has a tongue thrust because of the wide opening in the front.  

Then he told me, "Come back in six months.  It is not time yet."

He said her front tooth needs to finish descending.  Her right bottom tooth needs to erupt and her left tooth has not yet fully risen.  He said the roots on her adult teeth have not yet fully formed.  They are about three quarters of the way formed and he said he does not want to start moving teeth or applying pressure to teeth that do not have fully formed roots, as it can cause shortened roots for life, which means if the tooth should have trauma or infection in the future, you are at greater risk of losing it.

So he is saying she is not even ready for Phase 1, much less a full set of braces.  He said the timing of orthodontia is very important and he'll check again in August and see where we are.   He said she is only just eight years old and we have time.

I am very, very, very satisfied with this analysis.  I am in no hurry to rush in and start too early and I'm so glad I went for a second opinion.  I really like this place, although it's MUCH more expensive than the first place.

My biggest concern for getting her in early is that I had the same horrible front teeth come in at an overbite and I fell off my bike when I was 11 and broke them off because they jutted out.  Over the last 30 years, I've had to replace my front teeth five times and go through horrible procedures.  I've spent well over 10,000 dollars maintaining my front teeth as an adult and I can totally, totally see Amanda taking a dive and chipping or breaking off her teeth.   You will never in your life see me take a bite out of an apple.

So August it is.  I should shrink wrap her and put some padding on her head to keep those teeth in.

One down, three to go.  Who needs money anyway?  I laugh when I think about how stressed I was with  paying for four in preschool.  WHAT A FOOL!!!!  

I Keep Getting Sucked In

We had such a wonderful and relaxing weekend.  The weather is in the high 60s, without wind.  

The kids played outside for hours and hours and hours.  At one point, I saw the girls taking baskets out of the closet, which they loaded up with fruit and doll clothing.

"What are you guys doing with my fruit?", I asked.

"We're going on an expedition to Egypt.", Sarah said.

Their bikes were their camels and they rode down to the end of the driveway and were in Egypt.

When they were back from their trip, they constructed signs for a dancing contest they were having later.  Austin followed them around for a long time with a white top hat on.

They have such active imaginations and they play and play and play and play and come up with such funny and inventive things.  I just go along and find my fruit when it's over.

We also read a lot this weekend.  Amanda has gotten into the Cam Jansen series.  Austin has been reading the Horrible Harry series.  Sarah has been reading the whole Magic Treehouse series.  She also started Judy Moody but doesn't appear to like it.   Gregory is reading The Adventures Of The Bailey School Kids series.

I watched all 7 episodes of the first season of Downton Abbey.  Greg even watched 3 episodes with me and asked me on the way home from his mother's house last night what happened in the end?

I also started reading The Vegetarian Myth, which is an interesting manifesto from a reformed vegan, who now asserts that industrial agriculture has had the worst impact on ecosystems and the environment and health, than eating animals ever had.  Very interesting read.  I stumbled upon it when reading this blog about the lipid hypothesis myth.  

I am very interested in the lipid hypothesis myth and might write a post about it soon.  The lipid hypothesis is the thought that high cholesterol and fat intake causes heart disease, when in fact it does not and the widespread use of statin-lowering drugs is the greatest fraud ever perpetuated on the public.

I love me a good conspiracy theory.  I am thoroughly sucked in.

Amanda has her second consultation with another orthodontist today.  I'm taking her out of school this afternoon.  It will be interesting to get a second opinion, although I must say that I've taken the liberty of looking in the mouths of the children that have gone to the first orthodontist and their teeth are beautiful.

Amanda just may get the cheetah limo after all.  Perhaps she can pretend she's on her way to a safari when she gets her braces adjusted.