I was impressed by Katie the other night. She was in here with me and starting working on her multiplication tables while I was looking something up on the computer. She wrote down a great number of "8 times X" examples, then tore off a corner of the paper and wrote down:
"anything x 5 = half the number. Katie :)"
Yup, you got it, girl. :) |
But on the other hand, it was -so- satisfying to figure those out for myself as a kid; not something I'd have an opportunity to figure out for myself, likely, if they'd been included in "math skills". [On the third hand, the more basic skills you learn, the likelier you are to come up with something interesting on your own, so they probably -should- teach more practical math tricks.]