Old Dog.....New Tricks!!!

Yep that's me......an old dog...LOL! Not really but that's what I feel like sometimes.....a bit old fashioned, man's best friend (well only MY MAN ;) ) and very loyal and protective over my family and home. I hosted my sides Christmas this year. What a blessing to be able to open my home in fellowship, outreach and Love of the Lord. Christmas's are always a riot at my house....we have a VERY mixed crew....so the flavor of the evening is never ever boring. My brother, the eternal atheist( pray 4 him w/me,k?).....is such a brainiack......he is out there on a level of smarts sometimes that just makes me smile :) I do love him dearly despite the fact that we can find very little we agree on. He is his own man.....made through years of hard work and dedication to his company (self started and self owned) and I admire him for this. He shared with me some fun new math skills during his visit. Some of you may already know this so nothing new for you...but I enjoy these types of things/hints/tips/tricks when he shares them with me. I have seen much "new" math as my children have moved up through the grades.....but it's not really new. There are lots of ways to figure out math problems other than the way I was taught....it's just what techniques fall in and out of favor in the educational system. I remember when my guys learned the lattice method for multiplication....I'd never seen it before....I remember their Grandmother said it was BAD and maybe even EVIL. It was neither :) It was just new....and actually I don't even think it's new I think it may be centuries old. Anyway my Brother taught me yet another way called visual multiplication....it's really fun and easy and I think neat. Happy learning something NEW! This page explains it here and here's a neat video to see it work here