Every once in awhile a kid gets a 'mental block' treating something that is rather simple as if it is way to hard.
Whenever this happens I like to let my younger kids help solve the problem.
For example, today Dude asks for help 'combining like terms'. Which is fancy algebra speak for 'sort the variables'.
So I told him Baby Girl would be happy to help. (No she can't count that well, but it certainly reminds him his work is way easier than he is making it out to be -and Little Man was busy)
His math book had something like this: x + 2xy - 1 + 2x - xy + 2
I asked Dude what he was going to put together, he said an X and 2X. So I held up a finger and two fingers and asked baby girl to count them "un..do..." Dude interrupted to say "3X!"
Algebra is really often that simple, but sometimes kids think it is hard and they need 'help'. Dude BTW proceeded to solve the rest of the problem just fine without any more help.
I do a similar thing with multiplication or even addition, just get a younger child to do the counting, and suddenly older kids realize it might take them time, but they certainly can do the work.
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