Teaching an Old Fart a New Trick

My daughter has entered middle school and with it begins an introduction to algebra. For Mollie, that's no big deal. She's good at math. In fact, we discovered that they wanted to move her a grade ahead in math because her math scores warranted it (I said no for personal reasons).

But Mollie loves her some math.

I hate math. I mean, I have always hated it with the passion of a thousand exploding suns. I flunked algebra. Flunked. Got an F.

So Mollie has decided to teach me math. Right now we're working with base numbers, exponents and the proper methods of solving equations (parathensies, exponents, multiply, division, add, subtract) aka PEMDAS (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally).

I thought it would be as hateful to me as it was in 7th grade. Maybe it's because I love the teacher or maybe getting 40 years of life since 7th grade changed the brain but this is fun. I'm getting the basics and my daughter is throwing her homework problems at me (she already completed) and I struggle but slowly I'm figuring it out.

I'll never be a math wiz but I'm delighted to have this second chance to learn it.