Addition, Sums and Addition

I was helping Nuggie with her sums. It’s a simple issue… Make strokes, count them all up and that is your answer… Right? Wrong! She preferred to freely give each of them an answer that felt good to her, not what the sums said.

4+3=7…she gets it correctly, but insists she will add one or two to it to make it 8 or 9. I calmly explained why that will not work. She argues a little, then agrees to write 7.

1. We are still at number 1. You will think that will be the end of it right? You wish! Here I am explaining, you have to write the answer you got for the sum and not the one you feel at number 2,3,4,5… At five my voice was already going up in frustration. 

She kept looking at me, shaking her head and smiling at my increasingly rising voice and explanation. Is this girl messing with me or she just doesn’t want to understand? I kept wondering.
I’m tired from work, the weather is hot and sticky and I still need to go make dinner… This was so not funny!
I tried… Oh I tried! But I lost it at number 9!
In a loud voice, I screamed Nuggie for the ninth time, you cannot…!” Before I could finish, she cut me off. “Mummy calm down, I know the answer is 8 but I want to write 10. Calm down, stop shouting ahn ahn.
What choice do I have than to calm down and explain again at number 10…
To think we are still on addition…
One good thing though… She will grow to question status quo, I just have to learn to patiently be her experiment. So help me God. Amen