I have a somewhat dangerous habit of coming up with ideas that sound great but are harder to execute than I imagined. It’s probably good I have amnesia, otherwise I’d never do anything…er…fun. I’ve taught Jr. High for the last two years with Classical Conversations and wanted more than anything to take my class to a castle or ruins somewhere where they could actually see, and touch and experience all of the history and Latin they learn from (in their opinion) dusty tomes. Then I got to thinking, why not? If you look and wait long enough, you can find super cheap plane tickets to Europe, and with enough people you could rent an Airbnb and wha-la! Throw in a little help and hard work and surely it could actually happen.
And it did… or is… or will be Lord willing. Next week I’m headed to Rome with most of my Challenge B class and their parents. When I’m not panicking about losing a kid in the catacombs or winding up at the US Embassy with missing passports, I think I’ll actually enjoy myself.
Jamie keeps asking me if he can wash the windows or clean out the garage…. really anything to earn money for Rome. In CA there are no lawns to mow and no papers for teenagers to deliver. You can’t get a job at McDonald’s yet and families aren’t in the market for 13 year old male babysitters. He wanted to try a lemonade stand, but I told him to think of something more useful. Something that would actually be helpful (since no one is really dying of lemonade dehydration here, especially after the rainy winter we had).
This is what he came up with. Multiplication flashcards that are funny and quirky. Easy to remember and difficult to forget. Jamie has always been slightly dyslexic and has had to come up with creative ways to learn things that come easier for other kids. Some of the ways that help things “stick” are to make it colorful. Make it funny. Put the answer in a different color. Put both the problem and the answer on the same side so you can take a visual “picture” of them together. And to put the commutative law so you can learn two for the price of one. So here you have it: Multiplication Flashcards for those who struggle to memorize things (or for people who like classical art?)
If you like them, want them, or just want to help Jamie raise money for Rome, hit the donate button at the bottom. He’ll email you a full resolution PDF of all the multiplication flashcards 1-10. Any size donation will get you these super awesome, totally hilarious, completely appropriate flashcards.
