August 29, 2000

Hello again!  Yesterday, I got to leave the hot staff room and go teach at the classrooms attached to Jupiter Hall, the community center.  There were only ten students, and they are the ones who are really trying to get into a good college.  I like teaching these kids immensely.  Morishita-sensei and I put together a pretty good lesson, all about irregular verbs, and the use of be and been, to include could be, would be, should be, might be, can be, and must be, as well as could have been, should have been, would have been, must have been, and so on.  It is a subject that is terribly hard to explain to the Japanese, as there is only one word and one connotation in their language.  They just don�ft mess around with all the layers and delicacies of parts of language like we do.  No, they just have a little kanji character that you have to memorize.  It`s worse than hieroglyphics!  Ugh! Anyway, the lesson went well, and I went home to school Jessica after lunch.  Yes, homeschooling in the summertime too.  Well, yesterday we were tackling word problems in math.  It`s still easy stuff, but I am training her to do the stuff in her head. 

"Jessica,�h I began, �gyou are going to the store with three of your closest friends.  You and Friend #2 have the same amount of money.  Friend #3 has twice as much money as you do.  Friend #4 has one dollar less than Friend #3.  All together you have a total of $14.00.  How much money do YOU have?�h 

Jessica:   �gWhat store?�h

Me:  �gIt doesn�ft matter.  Any store�clike the Hyaku-en Plaza.�h

Jessica:  �gThey don�ft take dollars there.�h

Me:  �gIt doesn�ft matter.  The Dollar Store.  There. The Dollar Store.�h

Jessica:  �gMmmmmmm (thinking very hard.�c)So who is Friend #1?�h

Me:  �gYou are.  You are Friend #1.�h

Jessica:  �gWhy don�ft the others have names?�h

Me:  �gThey don�ft need names because it`s a math problem.�h

Jessica:  �gBut you said they are my closest friends   I should know their names.�h

Me:  �gJessica.  Stay with me.  Math, honey.  Math.    We are doing a math problem.  Okay. 
        Give them some names if it will make it easier.�h
(fingers find ridges in browline and rub them furiously)

Jessica:  �gOkay.  Tomoko-chan is Friend #2, Kaori is Friend #3.
              Ayaka can be Friend #4 even if she is kinda bossy.�h

Me:  �gVery good.  Now.  How much money do you have?�h

Jessica:  �gBut Mom, Tomo, Kaori and Ayaka probably don�ft have any dollars.�h

Me:  �gMath problem�cwe are doing math�c�h(eyes clamped shut)

Jessica:  �gOkay, sorry, now what was the problem again?�h

Me:  �gI forget.�h

Well, I did resurrect the fried remains of the problem from the recesses of my poor brain and managed to write it down.  When she didn�ft get it on the second try, I suggested that I introduce her to a new concept called EKS. (x)  

Me:  �gYou have EKS amount of dollars.  Write that down.�h

Jessica:  �g I have x dollars.�h

Me:  �gGood.  Now, how about Tomo-chan?�h

Jessica:  �gTomo-chan has x dollars.�h

Me:  �gRight.  Now, Kaori?�h

Jessica:  �gKaori has x+x dollars.�h

Me:  �gYes, you can also say 2 times x, and write it 2x.�h

Jessica:  �gOkay.  How about Ayaka?�h

Me:  �gYou tell me.�h

Jessica:  (lots of figuring, whispering, counting on fingers commences�cthen the wiggling begins.
            I am losing her.  MAYDAY MAYDAY!!!)

Me:  �gHow much does the problem say?�h

Jessica:  �gone dollar less than Kaori.�h

Me:  �gand Kaori has�c..�h

Jessica:  �g2x dollars.�h

Me:  �gright-o!  So you can write that like 2x-1�h

Jessica:  �gOh!  I see now.  I have $2.50.�h

Me:  �gWHAT??????!!!!!  When did you figure it all out?�h

Jessica:  �gAbout the time that I remembered that Kaori had one dollar more than Ayaka and twice as much as me and Tomo together, and fourteen dollars is the perfect amount.  That was an easy one.  Give me another.�h

Me:  �gHang on.  I need a drink of water.�h

Jessica:  �gCan I still be Friend #1?�h

We spent the next couple of hours working on basic elementary algebra.  It was good to exercise my math muscles after so much time.  Boy is it ever a perishable skill!  Luckily, I was able to teach her how to do some simple equations, balancing them all out on either side just the way I was taught, and she got pretty excited about being able to figure out the answers without every figure provided for her.  She got even more excited to hear that people usually don�ft learn any algebra until AT LEAST Junior High, and sometimes later!  Today, we will work out some more equations.  I have been thinking of tough ones all morning.  I hope that she will enjoy math as much as I did in school.  Makes it lots easier when you actually LIKE doing the stuff, eh?

Okay, I should go.  Mom, a couple of boxes are coming to you, and have Christmas stuff in them, so don�ft open them, okay?  I will need them when I arrive.  Speaking of, I got my plane tickets.  It is official.  Jessica and I will be there for pizza at MeeMaw`s on
Christmas Eve.  Yippee!  Details to come.  I do have a couple of things (small) that I would like for you to bring when you come, but I will talk to you about them.  The polo shirts we ordered and you already opened will hopefully fit in your suitcase, and I think Ken sent my birthday gift to you as well.  He asked me to ask you to please bring that,
and he can talk to you about it on the phone if you need him to clarify anything.  Thanks in advance for the use of your limited space.  I can just hear it now.  �gLynley instructs us not to bring anything hardly, and it`s so that HER STUFF will get to Japan.
Hhmph!�h  hee hee hee?I figured that I should be the first to slam myself!
Okay, I am really going now?please write soon! Love to all--Lynley