Our kids are rather picky with what they eat - a trait that they certainly don’t get from their father. As a result, they rarely buy lunch at school. There are a few exceptions to this, however, and each one has one or two of the school lunches that they like and they eat. The school lunches cost $2 each.
On some occasions parents get to join with their kids at lunchtime. We’ve done it a few times. I have seen what they get for $2 and I have to say that it is not a very good deal. The quality of the lunches I have seen might even cause me to bring my own lunch.
Anyway, April was relating a conversation about this that she had with another mother about how her kids have usually bought lunch, but after seeing what they are feed them, she doesn’t think they will buy lunch as frequently as they used to.
At the beginning of the conversation, Kyle gets up and leaves the room. This is not unusual as we are boring and he usually goes to find things that are more interesting. In this case, however, he came back about 3 minutes later with a calculator in his hand.
He shows it to us:”Look”, he says showing us the calculator that reads ‘2,520’, “this is how much it would cost you to buy lunch every day for all of elementary school.”
April and I looked at each other. Some times Kyle likes to just make things up and tell stories, but after a little quick math in my head, I knew it was at least pretty close.
“How do you know that?” I asked him.
“Well,” he explained, “it cost two dollars a day and there are 180 school days a year… so I multiplied 2 times 180 and got 360 dollars a year.”
“Okay,” we nodded.
“Then if you go to the school from kindergarten through 6th grade, you are there for 7 years, so I multiplied that by 7 and got 2,520 dollars.”
Keep in mind that Kyle just started 2nd grade. Also, he went and figured this out on his own just because he wanted to.
As a follow up, I reminded him that we have four kids and wondered out loud how much it would cost for all 4 kids to buy every day all through elementary school.
He quickly punched the numbers and explained that you just have to multiply the last number by 4. It came to $10,080.
I used to teach basic math in High School. There were several kids that would have struggled with this problem.
On some occasions parents get to join with their kids at lunchtime. We’ve done it a few times. I have seen what they get for $2 and I have to say that it is not a very good deal. The quality of the lunches I have seen might even cause me to bring my own lunch.
Anyway, April was relating a conversation about this that she had with another mother about how her kids have usually bought lunch, but after seeing what they are feed them, she doesn’t think they will buy lunch as frequently as they used to.
At the beginning of the conversation, Kyle gets up and leaves the room. This is not unusual as we are boring and he usually goes to find things that are more interesting. In this case, however, he came back about 3 minutes later with a calculator in his hand.
He shows it to us:”Look”, he says showing us the calculator that reads ‘2,520’, “this is how much it would cost you to buy lunch every day for all of elementary school.”
April and I looked at each other. Some times Kyle likes to just make things up and tell stories, but after a little quick math in my head, I knew it was at least pretty close.
“How do you know that?” I asked him.
“Well,” he explained, “it cost two dollars a day and there are 180 school days a year… so I multiplied 2 times 180 and got 360 dollars a year.”
“Okay,” we nodded.
“Then if you go to the school from kindergarten through 6th grade, you are there for 7 years, so I multiplied that by 7 and got 2,520 dollars.”
Keep in mind that Kyle just started 2nd grade. Also, he went and figured this out on his own just because he wanted to.
As a follow up, I reminded him that we have four kids and wondered out loud how much it would cost for all 4 kids to buy every day all through elementary school.
He quickly punched the numbers and explained that you just have to multiply the last number by 4. It came to $10,080.
I used to teach basic math in High School. There were several kids that would have struggled with this problem.
1 comment:
Go Kyle go-the smartness from "one" of his parents is rubbing off. (You decided which parent is the "one".) I know for a fact I coult not have figured that out in 2nd grade, let alone 6th grade. :) Smart boy! He will one day be an Engineer or maybe an Accountant??
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