Messy Math

January 20, 2021

Now I’m not blaming the math book. The lesson was simple enough and doing a recipe with your kids to talk about measurements shouldn’t be hard. I tried to make it simple for us. I really did. I didn’t choose beef wellington, coq au vin, or croissants. I chose Kodiak protein balls that came in a neat package with easy directions on the back. It had few ingredients but had 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/3 cup honey, and 1/4 cup water. Perfect! Or so I thought. 

With all this careful planning, I honestly don’t know how the following scenario ensued. Yet, it was within minutes of beginning our recipe, I found myself wiping peanut butter out of the eye of a kid who had been trying desperately to make careful measurements. I guess I had faintly heard him as he repeatedly slung the spoon and hit it against the measuring cup trying to get “all the peanut butter off.” And as a somewhat experienced mother of boys, I shouldn’t have been surprised when belting from the middle of the kitchen we heard, “Ahhhhhh! I got peanut butter in my eye. Ahhh!” Y’all, don’t worry, he’s fine. 

It wasn’t Saxon math’s fault that our very large container of peanut butter was down to its last 1/2 cup and ended up all over the counter top and in his eyeball. It wasn’t the curriculum’s fault that my other child had gotten distracted and spilt bits of the 1/3 cup of honey onto the counter. And it definitely wasn’t the book’s fault that my youngest covered the floor in oats and chips as he kept forgetting to form the protein balls over the bowl. 

All in all, with my current homeschool mom expectations, I rate this lesson a success. I mean, my kitchen may look like a protein ball exploded and there may still be a little redness in one of my kid’s eye, but there honestly have been worse lessons. Now onto literature…