Seeing that I’d already compromised my principles a year ago by using “fruit” snacks to help Big Guy learn to add and subtract, I had no ethical problem whatsoever with sending Boots to hell in a nutritional hand basket at the start of his academic career.

Particularly since he’s not meeting California kindergarten math standards, according to his first report card. And what might those be? I wondered the same thing because he hadn’t had one whiff of math paperwork up to that point, nor had I received any materials outlining them.

I’m being silly, of course. I do know what the California kindergarten math standards are. This is not my first rodeo and, besides, I got a copy from a second-grade teacher.

But I digress …

After reviewing the mystery standards that Boots isn’t meeting, I decided to start tackling them point by point.

First up: Compare objects and determine which is more than, less than or equal to.

Second up: Possibly a trip to the dentist because I’ve hit the candy stash again.

I started with gummy bears. We also had leftover Dots and Mike and Ike originals on hand. They’re the same colors as the bears so I added them to the mix. This let me add a lesson in the “algebra” standard, too – identify, sort and classify objects by attributes such as shape, color, size, etc.

Once I got past giggling at the notion of a kindergarten algebra standard, even though it’s probably essential in a day when second-graders are dealing with mode and range, Boots went to work.

He sorted by color and compared his results. He sorted again by shape and compared again. Then we got really complicated and he sorted by shape and color. He even tackled some basic addition.

Amazingly, he worked happily for about a half hour before asking to eat his homework.

Copyright 2010 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

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