American Education Week

I went to a continuing education conference today. It ended early afternoon, which left me with some free time. Since it's American Education Week, I figured I'd stop by Marc's school to spend some time watching him.

I got there just in time for SSR (for those who don't remember, that's Silent Sustained Reading) and Marc & I were able to sit on the carpet in the corner and read to each other. After that, it was Math. They had to figure out how to make 42 cents out of 6 coins and I am ashamed to say about half the 1st graders had that solved before me. (And there are two correct answers!)

I didn't realize how far Marc has pulled ahead in math. While the rest of his class worked on some basic addition, Marc was learning how to add 3 three-digit numbers. Like, 203 + 357 + 859. That sort of thing.

This was something new for him, so I sat with him and showed him how to carry. We did the first few together, but then he wanted to try by himself. He did a pretty good job, though sometimes forgot to actually add the number he carried. I supposed since he's only 6, it's a skill he has plenty of time to acquire. I even tried to trick him by giving him a problem that would require him to carry a 2 instead of a 1, but that wasn't tricky to him at all.

Seriously, he's kind of starting to scare me a little bit...