Am I smarter than a 4th grader?

Currently I have just completed week two of fourth grade. Well, let me clarify. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings I spend my time with a bright eyed red haired ten year old, who happens to be in the fourth grade. Between gymnastics, baking cakes and creating some disgusting concoction I call goop she refers to as something fancy, there is that thing called homework. Man does she tend to have alot of it!

We were working on definitions the other evening as I tried to figure out what to make for dinner that feel in the two groups of food she likes (cheese and noodles, and we'd already had mac and cheese this week) she asked me what spewed meant. Well lets see, yes I know it means um... well I took a pause. I can't used the word in the definition (as she was quick to inform me when I tried to with the word awaken) so I stuttered around with words such as spilled, rained, splattered, and while she seemed content I however was not. Sometimes I suppose we take things like word vocabulary for granted.

Our last challenge for the week (other than getting to gymnastics on time and compromising about food groups) was to study for a geometry test. Since I am fully aware math is not my strong suite, I of course asked Brandon to teach me how to teach polygons and angles. His advice was to use the pre-fixes. UM, the whole point of 4th grade is to teach the pre-fixes (i.e octa means 8). I decided he came from the womb knowing his shapes, colors and angles and make another plan of attack.

When she bounded to my car Thursday after school she happily informed me she got a 94 on her geometry test. I wonder if she thought about me flailing my arms around doing the "octa"pus dance or running around the house practicing the difference between a ray and a line segment. It might take me a little while longer, but I think I can keep up with a fourth grader.