well, in the end, the ponies are the thing

Okay, so I lose time the last few days since at work, they actually kept work waiting for me (I keep waving my bottle of cough syrup and they are like BUT YOU CAN TYPE WHILE YOU COUGH RIGHT? Yes, apparently, I can, and also, wow, so you want me to write two brand new scripts in a hour? This is because I said I liked doing scripts, isn't it? I'm an idiot.), and there is a.) a fanfiction survey that went skeevy and b. okay, I don't know, was there anything else that I missed?

Should I be afraid?

Child

Child started seventh grade. This is inexpressibly painful adn horrible, as Child is now like, almost a Teen, and I feel this will be detrimental to our normal adversarial relationship. I've been researching and telling Child what's in store for us. Sample convo (paraphrased):

Me: You are going to hate me and tell me that I am ruining your life. It says so here.
Child: ...I say that already.
Me: But you'll be fueled by testosterone this time!
Child: Is this another sex talk?
Me: Did we talk about condoms and girls recently?
Child: You are ruining my life.
Me: Exactly!

Child thinks I shouldn't be allowed near any parenting material for the next few years. Which really, I can't blame him; he's started looking wary every time I mention booju_newju.

In more interesting news, he's back in teh advanced math class, where they started familiarizing themselves with the concept of double variable equations. Child was having a massive hard time with this and driving me insane--this is concept, as in, it will be something like this.

a = 3, b = 6.2

2a + 5b = whatever number, I so am not going to be accurate.

I kept kind of wanting to hit him--it's all right there! Then I realized that he's trying to do all of this--all of this--without showing his work. In fact, according to what I can work out from the directions, they are supposed to do all of this mentally. Which sure, that's easy enough--if you know the goddamn process, which is why I was forced to show my work for years, even when I didn't need to, so later, I could do pretty much all basic arithmetic without a pencil and kicked ass at UIL Number Sense (for those not in Texas, competitive mental math test).

It's frustrating to try to get across to him it does not make him a lesser person to write it out as a proof first so he knows how it is supposed to look, and that after he does a couple like that, he can do the rest mentally because then he knows what it looks like. Or maybe that's just how I learn? IDK--I was required to show full work and proof for years, which in the end I was doing after the fact just so I'd get teh credit. But the first time I ever learned anything, I'd proof it so I could see the logic chain, just automatically. It's pretty much how I learned Calculus in Finnish. I couldnt' understand the instructor, but I dind't need to; I had the proofs to teach me.

I'm weirded out. I can teach him how to proof and show work, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what his instructor is about. Right now it's not a big deal, but this is where you set the habits of knowing how to do all this. He can probably get through trig and first semester Calculus like this, but geometry and second semester Calculus will kill him if he's trying to do triple variables in his head. I probably should consult V's husband, since he's working on his masters in math, and have him try to explain to Child why it's so necessary to know how to do the process.

[In retrospect, I'm not sure he can do trig without proof. It's freaking waves. I mean, I can't figure out what the point of trig would be without having to show your work. It's kind of hte point of trig. *frowns* I bet I have my notebooks still.]

Also of interest--Child's first book report for English has to be on a graphic novel. His first book report is supposed to be a graphic novel. I do not know how I could love this school more. He's thinking of Watchmen, but I think they want something new (and also, I'm not sure of the appropriateness of Watchmen. It has a lot in there that frankly, at his age, he just is not going to pick up; hell, there's stuff in there I know I'm not picking up, and I know he skimmed some of the parts that were--uncomfortable, because those parts I skimmed too). Anyone have any recommendations?

Me

Er, nothing? I am almost done with bronchitis treatment, the breathing is fine, the cough is light and probably as much due to the allergy issues that are hitting Austin right now as much as anything and nearly gone.

In closing, I want a pony that was raised by nuns. Seriously, the Catholic Church is going about recruitment all wrong. Go to any third grade class and ask them if they want to raise ponies when they grow up and convent recruitment would skyrocket. I won't lie; if I'd known about this when I was a kid? I'd totally be Sister Jenn raising ponies on Brenham. This career choice was not offered to me as a child. I resent it.

Comments

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forgot to mention: not all of these are new!

Newest are prob Persepolis, Age of Bronze, and Blankets.