We are not necessarily a math family...at least not the children or me.  My husband is good with math.  When he was taking college classes, I kept telling him that statistics was a bear.  I've known math majors who struggled with it.  Although dh struggled with most of his college classes, he was the star of his statistics class!  It was a wonderful change of pace for him, to be the one who knew all the answers and to be asked by the instructor to put sample answers on the board.  For a guy who is mostly hands on and rarely bookish, it was a shining moment!

My children and I do not equally shine in math.  For us, math is a laborious process that we endure.  Nevertheless, we aim to conquer.  It is the first subject of our day, when our brains are  fresh.  We also want to get it over and done with!  =0  My children have pretty much followed my footsteps, carrying an A or B average, but enduring while trying to understand. 

12yos, especially, has struggled.  As brilliantly minded as he is, he detests the tedious work of memorization, whether it was phonics or spelling rules, much less math facts.  He'd often lose hope and I keep telling him one day things will kick in.  I was hoping Piaget, in all of his theories, was on target when he said puberty makes a big difference in abstract thinking.  I have seen that in 14yod.  I've been waiting for the day for it to kick in with 12yos.

Today was the day.  After his quiz, which he aced, he completed his worksheet.  Today he studied Pascal's triangle. Having no idea what was going on, he came to me for help.  This in itself has been a major accomplishment.  Until the last year, he thought he was a poor student if he needed help with anything.  Therefore when he comes for help, I exaggerate the opportunity to help him, just to tease him.  =)  

I could tell he was not completely focusing on what I was saying, because the gears in his brain were busily whirring.  Part way through my explanation, things started clicking.  Actually, he found a pattern I had not seen.  It was enough to get him started.  When he finally turned the paper in, he got the final question wrong and I had to figure that out to explain.  I walked him through how I backtracked on the lesson, to figure out the pattern.  Although I knew the correct answer because of the answer key, I had no idea how to explain it.  In the midst of the process, the lightbulb went on for both of us; once again we each saw different patterns.  Unlike my dd who needs every detail explained, ds was catching on quickly and could quickly see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I do believe there is hope in math yet!  LOL