Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

We admit that tonight for the first time in homework history we had to phone a friend for help. Megan and Jeran have an extra credit math problem of the week that usually requires a lot of thinking (i.e. not your typical 5th grade math problem). We help them solve it when they need help. The truth is they usually don't need help. Jeran is our resident math whiz. When that doesn't work out Tim and I are back up. So far, so good. We haven't caused them to fail any assignments and like to pat ourselves on the back that we've been able to help our kiddos with homework without getting stumped. I looked at Megan's problem tonight and said the first answer out of my mouth, which was 10. Megan said, "And the answer can't be 10." If I don't get a problem within a few minutes of looking at it and reading it, I have to walk away and come back to it later. I did walk away, and said, "Who can we call who is smart in math?" Megan said, "One of your sisters." So I called Esther, who of course solved the problem for us using algebra. When I told the kids Esther was a middle school math teacher they were completely impressed. I predict one of two things will happen. Either 1) Our children will be calling Esther a lot, even before bothering to ask us, or 2) I'll give up a lot sooner on some of those really tuff math problems and call Esther. Megan said she thinks Esther should be on Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader because she "knows a lot about e=mc2 stuff." (I think she means algebra.) Thanks Es! You're smarter than a fifth grader!