How Chicken Pot Pie Sent Me Into a Sad Little State of Panic and Despair

I asked Scott to explain Pi to the kids yesterday as we ate our Chicken Pot Pie in celebration of Pi day (3/14).  I knew he would do a better job than I, as I would have probably just showed them the symbol and told them it equaled 3.14

Because folks, that pretty much sums up what I know about Pi.

He however drew them a picture of a circle, taught them about diameter and then went on to tell them that you need a little (.14 to be exact) over three strings the width of a circle to make it all the way around the circle.  And that special name for the exact number of strings you would need is called Pi.

In actuality I am sure our eating pie for dinner while having this discussion only served to further confuse them, but it is my goal that years from now when they learn about Pi in middle school some sort of light bulb will click in their brains and they will say, “Oh, I get it, that’s why mom always served pie to us on the 14th of March!” 

And I am pretty sure I will not be the one teaching them when that light bulb goes off b/c the thought of trying to explain Pi to someone makes my head hurt and scares the bejeebers out of me. 

To be honest, I had no idea that cool fact about the diameter and the distance around the circle.   In fact as we went to bed last night I asked Scott, “So what is **πr 2 **?  (Secretly I was kinda proud of myself for even being able to recall that mathematical sequence even though I can recall nothing about what that equation equals)

And as he went on to explain it to me, my brain got all fuzzy like it typically does when in times like these.  I hear the words that are being said but no matter how much I focus on them, I am still not fully comprehending what they mean.  And don’t even think of asking me to explain it back to you.

Which, of course, sent me into a kind of depressing little panic attack as I realized there is NO WAY I can home school our kids past elementary school.  I always kinda thought, well perhaps if things were going well, we could think about middle school when we get to middle school.  Sure, there is lots I don’t know or remember but it will be kinda fun to relearn those things with my kids. ha ha… geography and world history maybe, but math is a whole other can of worms….

And so,  today, I was so grateful to have Pi behind us as we tackled counting by twos and double digit subtraction…an area I felt much more competent in.