Taz is true to his “Tasmanian Devil” nickname with his high energy, loud noises and cyclone-like behaviors. In addition, his attention span is a bit … short. I might even say it’s about the size of a gnat. Very small, very short, hardly noticeable.

For Taz, math is one of those subjects he excels in understanding, but struggles to slow down in the process of actually doing it. His shortened attention span adds a different level of learning. He hurries through it as quickly as possible, often making mistakes along the way. He typically answers correctly, but he is constantly writing his 6s backwards and other numbers simply aren’t recognizable in his flurry of pencil strokes. To help ease the frustration of correcting many errors, I sit with him in the moment to help him walk (not race) through his work.

Recently, we were working through one of his very basic math problems on his practice sheet, “7-3=__”, he mumbled to himself with lightning speed as he processed aloud the answer to the problem.

“[mumble mumble] … 7 … [mumble mumble] … 10 … [mumble mumble] … 6 … [mumble mumble] … 4!”

I looked at him with utter confusion.

He let me in on a little secret of his and confidently explained, “What I do is I take 7 and I change it to a plus problem so it’s 7+3 which is 10, and then I minus 6 which equals 4!”

[me: blink blink blink]

I couldn’t help it, laughter simply bubbled right up and out as I processed what he was saying.

Taz instantly burst out, “What! What! It’s so much easier that way!”

More laughing ensued. This kid of ours, he is awesome. Truly, one-of-a-kind, awesome.

King, upon hearing what Taz did to solve this particular math problem, chuckled and honestly stated, “That’s really smart, but really confusing!”

I agree, King, I agree.  🙂