I've been moonlighting on the crafty-arty scene.
You see I've been battling a demon of my elementary
years. (No, not that horrible climbing rope in gym;
that is completely beyond me. The rope won.)
I've been tutoring a 5th grader in math.
And, I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Shocking, yes?
I must admit to a bit of shock myself.
Here's the thing, I struggled with math throughout
grade school. I am dyslexic and spent so much of my
time trying to decode what was being asked
and trying to keep my numbers in the correct order,
that I was constantly behind. Addition and multiplication
were okay (if I could transcribe my answer properly),
but subtraction and division? I can remember spending
ages just trying to work out problems like this:
8 ÷ 4
I knew the answer would be either 2 or 1/2, but
trying to figure out the direction the problem was
meant to go was beyond me.
When I got to college, I started over.
Honestly, I started in the lowest level math class they
offered and worked my way up to upper division math.
Suddenly, things clicked. Math became beautiful.
(Don't get me wrong, it was still hard, and it was
never my best subject, but I could understand.)
So, tutoring? Math? I know teachers of mine who
would be shocked. But, here's the thing, I know how
it feels to not understand. I can't be shocked by sudden
mental lapses or getting numbers confused; I have done
it all. I still have moments where I can't read a number
straight, but math concepts? Those I can do.
And I love, LOVE, to find alternate ways to think.
Going at an idea sideways is something I enjoy in art,
and problem solving, and teaching. Math is a perfect
foil for this.
Will I do more tutoring? I don't know. It just feels
good to stretch that analytical part of my brain,
and poke a childhood phobia in the eye.