My nine-year-old son, Jeremy, and I had a fun math experience this week.

We use Saxon Math, and our last few lessons have been about intersecting lines, perpendicular lines, right angles and arrays. After our lesson Tuesday, Jeremy completed his worksheet, then, rather than checking it myself as usual, I gave him the teacher's manual and showed him how to check it.

This was the first time he had ever looked closely at the TM, and he said, "I could teach you with this!" 

I smiled and said, "You sure could,"  to which he replied, "Can I?"  LOL  

"Sure," I said. "Do you want to teach me the next lesson Thursday?"  (The following day was his 9th birthday...no school lessons :-) 

When Thursday rolled around, he was ready to teach me the math lesson -- "Writing Number Sentences for Arrays."

I pointed out the bold, italicized sentences in the TM, showing him how this indicated what to say to the student and what was for the teacher's information.

Very clear-cut.

Jeremy looked at the first sentence and asked, "Do I have to say it exactly like that, or can I say it my way?" 

"You can say it however you like, as long as the information is correct," I told him.

So he proceeded to draw an array on the dry-erase board and followed the TM to ask me questions, have me label it and to show me how to write a number sentence for it. He repeated with two more arrays, looked ahead, saw nine more examples coming and asked if he had to do all nine.

"No, Sweetie. You can just do the number of examples that you think it takes for me to get it.  Once I know you understand a concept, I move on." 

"OK, good -- you get it. We're moving on," he said. "Now do your worksheet."

I completed the worksheet, then Jeremy checked it carefully. The answers were in the TM, but I watched him read each problem, figure out the answer for himself, then double-check with the TM. Once my paper was checked, Jeremy instructed me to complete the multiplication drill, then he checked it and we were finished.

Jeremy enjoyed teaching mom (and himself) and looks forward to doing it again.