I guess I've always been a little...different.

So should I be surprised that it seems I've turned out to be a magnet for...different...understandings of the world?  That my curiosity should lead me to...different...explanations for what most people take for granted?

There's enough material here to open a new series, and so I will, despite the risk of losing any credibility I might ever have had.  And today I begin somewhat safely with the topic of mathematics.

Some time ago Paul was given a press copy of the Mega Math program by Scott Flansburg after Mr. Flansburg had been featured on a Moody Broadcasting Network Program.  According to his website, Mr. Flansburg has been dubbed "The Human Calculator" by Regis Philbin, and he has been featured on television programs such as Oprah, amazing audiences by his ability to compute calculations faster than a digital calculator.

It was in the Mega Math material where I first learned how to add from left to right, rather than from right to left, as we've all been taught.  The advantage to this is that, as you keep a running mental account as you compute the answer, you may more readily produce the answer without using a pencil.

For instance, you may wish to add 367 to 493.  This is what you see:

 367

+493

So you say, "300 plus 400 is 700, plus (60 plus 90) 150 is 850, plus 10 is 860."

Try it!  You'll be amazed at the fluidity with which you'll be able to add.

Now, Aelsa is, according to the wisdom imparted by the Bluedorns, beginning her formal math this year, beginning with Saxon 65.  She already knows how to add from left to right, just as she knows how to read from left to right, but trying on her own to comprehend traditional 3-digit subtraction had stopped her in her tracks.

Recalling the good ol' Mega Math program on our shelf, I immediately comforted her and assured her that I had just the thing.  Once I had figured out what Mr. Flansburg recommended, I was able to direct her in writing out her work like this:

 400 = 300 + 100 + 0 = 300 + 90 + 10

-379 = 300 +  70 + 9 = 300 + 70 +  9 

                         0 + 20 +  1 = 21

Now, this may seem like an awfully long process to go through, but the fact is that it communicates the process much more clearly than working through it from right to left.  She begins by noticing that she can't add anything to 70 to make 0, so she knows she must redistribute the number of hundreds to make it possible.  Then she notices that she can't add anything to 9 to make 0, so she redistributes the number of tens to make it possible.

By the end of the day's assignment she was able to reduce these two steps into one with ease and accuracy, so it will be a matter of time and practice before she can do it from the onset.  And then I expect she'll be able to do it in her head, a feat which otherwise would be unthinkable for most people, me included.

Yep.  This way of doing it is different.  But from my perspective, it makes more sense. 

from Ecclesiastes 3:

    14 I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever.
       Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it.
       God does it, that men should fear before Him.