Preamble

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Granted my kid is in private school, but at the third grade level in the school he is in, calculators aren't allowed. And they are doing difficult long division. I'd bet in public school, that not only are calculators allowed, but they are a requirement on the school supply list.

My oldest is in private school and she is memorizing her multiplycation tables and doing long division. Funny thing is, she had trouble with addition, but picked up mutliplication right away. My kids don't own calcuators. I want them to understand the concept of math and fell comfortable with doing it in their head.

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My daughter's fav 1st grade one for teaching nines (single digit)...

Hold up your ten fingers and put down the finger that is represented by the second number... and that is your answer.

Nice trick. I always remembered that the answer would add up to 9.

18 -> 1+8=9
27 -> 2+7=9
etc

Do you have any more tricks?

[DieselSmoke]

The Preamble saved me from getting my license suspended. We had to memories it back in grade school too and i never forgot it. I was 17 and had 14 tickets that year, If you think that's bad i also was charge w/ a felony that year. So I had to go before the juvenile traffic judge to save my license. He told me "if you can answer these 10 government questions right, you can keep your license". Well i only got 7 right but i before i walk into the court room i saw the Preamble hanging on the wall. So my quick thinking i said " i know the Preamble" and he said " get it right and you can keep it. I spouted it out and verbatim and keep my license. To this day i can still recite the Preamble.