Area

The other night, I made roasted fish and vegetables for dinner. Michaela complained I gave her too many vegetables. When I brushed off her concern, she started to use her hands to measure the veggies on her plate.

“My hand is seven inches,” she said, holding her hand parallel to the length of her plate, then parallel to the width. She started muttering to herself. “Seven…times…three…is 21…,” she trailed off for a minute before triumphantly exclaiming “The area of these vegetables is 21! That’s too many veggies!”

I nearly died laughing, then corrected her claim that her hand is seven inches long. I totally forgot about the whole thing until we got a “happy new year/back-to-school” email from Michaela’s teacher. In it, she wrote that the kids were learning how to calculate area and that they were really enjoying it. Then it clicked! Now I know where that super random “too many veggies” defense came from!

I emailed her teacher back with the story. She responded that she’s been telling the kids it’s a very useful skill to have in real life. Apparently Michaela has taken that to heart.