What are they teaching him?

***UPDATED*** With his teacher's response.


Z. gets home from school today and since he hasn't been feeling well I ask him how he's doing. He says fine but that he has a lot of homework. So off he goes to start working on it. A little while later he comes out and ask me and Hubs if we know how to do Mexican Division? Both of us just look at each other and try not to laugh and say what, since we were expecting a joke? And he says do you know how to do the Mexican division? So this is how the conversation played out.

Me: What do you mean by the Mexican division?

Z: You know where you do division and it looks like your playing hangman.

Me: Well I know how do a kind of division with a box that looks kind of like hangman. But I call it long division. Let me show you. And I do.

Z: No mom, that's different than Mexican Division but it's kind of the same. And he takes the paper from me.

So he shows me a "new" way of doing what I know as long division with some tweaks here and there. It's definetely not the same way I did long division but it comes up with the same answer. I just can't get past the name it was given, "Mexican Division". Z. isn't any help since he just said he thought that must be how they do it in Mexico.

I know this may upset some of you but I truly do find this whole thing funny. And I can hardly wait to get the answer from his teacher as to why it's called "Mexican Division". And just to be sure I wasn't old or anything I googled Mexican Division and nothing came up. So now I really am anxiously awaiting the answer from his math teacher as to why in the world it is called Mexican Division? And I did tell Z. that I'm sure that it's not called Mexican Division because that's the way they do it in Mexico.

Alright for those of you who are actually still curious as to his teachers response I'd thought I'd share it with you.

Z. is correct; we are learning "partial quotients" which is how they divide in Mexico. It helps make division easier for the students who can get stuck very easily on the traditional method of long division. It is where the students break apart the dividend by using multiples of 10, and subtract those pieces from the whole.

Mmmm...okaaay! Since I technically never learned math IN Mexico (just the border town across the Rio Grande) I truly can't 100% contradict her on this one. But I really do kind of want to. ;)

Because I'm really at a loss here

I'm to tired to think of anything interesting to write about. So this is what you get instead. A quiz on the kind of American English I speak.

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English 20% Dixie 20% Yankee 0% Midwestern 0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I can understand all the scores except the 20% Yankee one. I'm not a Yankee and haven't even been further north than Virginia. So how in the world did I score a twenty percent there? I'm curious as to how you guys score, so if you take the quiz let me know.

So then I'm looking at other quizzes to take and I come acorss this one called "What's my Girl Smell"? Well how could I resist that one. I've always been curious about what my girl smell is ya know and here it is:

Your Scent is Mango

Sultry, sweet, and mellow You enjoy every moment of life!

What's Your Girl Smell?

Mango...never would have guessed that one in a million years. No I was thinking more of the soap smell, wearing the same shirt the kids wiped thier hands on yesterday smell but instead I got mango. I don't even care for mango's that much but apparently it's my smell. Who would have thought it?

So there you have it. My thoughts are not working today so instead you get worthless quizzes and what I think of them. I'm sorry about it, really I am.

What are they trying to tell me

I'm driving in the car this morning and K. looks at me and says so sweetly "I like your Zebra shirt". So I look at my red and white striped shirt and just say thank you sweetie.

Then this afternoon, Hoss is in the kitchen and says "Whoa, Mom, you look just like a zebra".

What is it exactly my kids are trying to tell me. I'm feeling very self conscious in a zebray kind of way. And I'm just not sure I will wear this again.

Basket Gremlin Strikes Again

It happened again today. That darn basket gremlin stuck me at the grocery store. Normally I am able to keep most of his mischievous purchases out of my basket. But today for some reason I missed what was put in the basket. And since I had the help of three of my kids to put the groceries onto the cash register belt, I missed them there as well. When I was unloading my groceries at home. I found an abundance of extra cookies and crackers. I also found an extra box of juice bags. But since we go through those so quickly I really don't care about that one to much. But unless you think that gremlin was only after junk food, I also found a poked in kiwi. But that little guy wasn't actually in a bag, he was found left alone in the basket while I was loading the car. Still not sure how he ended up there since he wasn't there while I was paying. All I can say is that those darn gremlins were definitely moving faster than I was today.