A seed of the love of math

Adeline taps her fingers against the wooden table, chewing her lip. She looks at the freezer, brows knit in curiosity. Jumping up, she crosses the kitchen, pulling the stool with her. Climbing onto it, she opens the freezer, the cold air kissing her face. A wide grin spreads across her face—how weird is it to have a space that makes things go from liquid to solid?

She sticks a finger in the ice-cube tray. Still liquid. Hopping down, she closes the freezer and pulls the stool back into its spot. Her mother looks at her, head quirked, an eyebrow raised, but then goes back to kneading the bread. Adeline crosses back to her seat and stares at her math homework. A heavy sigh escapes her as she climbs back onto the bench and picks up her pencil again. Her eyes skitter back to the freezer, anxiously biting her lower lip, and tapping her fingers against the table. She sets her cheek on her hand, scowling at the freezer.

“Addie, what’s so interesting about the freezer?” Her mom’s warm voice draws her out of her reverie. Her elbows are covered in flour, blonde curls in a bun.

“Um…” Adeline frowns, pinching her face, fighting to put ideas into words. “It freezes things. Which is kind of magical. But how long does it take? Why does it work?” Pausing, she squeezes her eyes shut, taking a deep breath.” I mean, you say magic is really science I don’t know yet, and learning why it works just makes it more interesting.” The words rush out, her breath catches, eyes going wide, looking into her mom’s large blue eyes, the tension in every line of the small girl’s body.

A wide smile breaks across her mom’s face. “Totally! How cool, freezing things is really weird, right?” She puts the dough down, rolling off some pieces in her hands. Crossing over to Adeline, she crouches down so they’re on the same level. She gently rests her elbow on Adeline’s knee, and her shoulders drop a bit, her breathing lightens. “If I promise to help you answer those questions, will you promise to stop opening my freezer every minute?” Her eyes twinkle.

Adeline nods. “Deal!” She grins, grateful to have help with her question. “What’s the next step?” Her hands start tapping against her knees.

Her mom glances down at her hands, her smile widening. “It’s great to see you so excited. The next step is to ask your father. He’s the chemist; this will be in his wheelhouse.” A delighted chuckle lets Adeline know she’s going to enjoy watching them. Leaning forward, she kisses Adeline’s cheek. “Until he gets home, would you like to prepare some bread rolls with me?”

Adeline nods. She loves the texture of the dough, plopping it down in round mounds on the cookie sheet.

Mom slides the rolls into the oven, humming gently. Sitting back down in her spot, Adeline pulls her math homework towards her. Rubbing her temples, her eyes scan the page. Slowly her body goes still and stares at the table. She glances at the clock; Dad usually gets home in 10 minutes.

Her mom’s phone starts to sing the tune of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. She grins, pulling it from her pocket, she answers it and puts it on speaker on the table.

Adeline grins at her, and she gestures for her to speak. “Hi Papa! Mom and I are here. How’re you?” Her voice sounds high and fast. Gulping, she takes a deep breath.

“Aw, hi Addie! Glad to hear you. I’m good, just going to be working late tonight. Just got the dreaded deadline from Eamon.” His voice sounds a little heavy, but a chuckle finishes it off. “I knew this day would come.” Her mom reaches out and squeezes Adeline’s arm. She flops down on a chair, laying her head on the table, pillowed by her arms, her smile falling to a frown. Staring at the homework, her eyes appear dull.

“Yeah, we did.” Her mom says wryly, a grin pulling her mouth into a smile. “It’s part of the job description, right? Well, make sure to eat and get what sleep you can. Hey… out of curiosity, do you know how long it takes popsicles to freeze?” She smiles at Adeline and gives a mischievous wink.

“Ah, well, with the right information, sure. Why?”

Adeline perks up, eyes flying open. “We’re freezing popsicles, and I wanna know how long they take to freeze!” The words burst forth, sharp with excitement.

One heartbeat. Two. Three.

“Ah… I see. Yes. I can teach you that, Addie. But have you learned your multiplication tables yet? It’ll be a lot harder without them.” She gulps. Looking at the math homework she’s been avoiding, the multiplication table forgotten on the table.

“Um. I’ve been working on it.” The words fall, sheepish, and quiet. “They’re… really boring.” Her voice gets quieter, a blush blossoming on her cheeks. She forces a breath out.

“I can see how you’d think that. But the equation for how long things take to get to a certain temperature is more complicated, Addie. We can do it, but I need you to learn your multiplication tables first.” His tone has laughter behind his words. She rolls her eyes.

“Okay. Fine. I’ll have them done by the time you get home.” The words sound heavy, steeped in resignation and dread.

“It’s a deal, Addie. I know you can do it! And my Millie, please know I am looking forward to being home. Love you and the girls, I gotta go.” His voice goes quiet the last few words, like he’s moving away from the mic.

“Of course, Theo. Have fun storming the castle!” And she taps the red “end” button.

“Mom, why did you say ‘have fun storming the castle’? What a weird way to say bye!” She tilts her head, crooking an eyebrow.

“It’s from a movie. If you get that multiplication table memorized up through 5, we can watch it after dinner. Okay… I guess this one’s on me. Do you know what multiplication is?” Sliding onto the padded bench, she pulls the paper towards her, opening an inviting arm for Adeline.

Tucking under her arm, Adeline glares at the table. Leaning her head against her mom’s shoulder, she wilts gently. “I mean… the first number is how many, the second is how many times, right?” She says, slowly, thinking through each phrase. Her mom gives her a squeeze, nodding. Adeline grabs a pencil and another piece of paper. “So 2 x 3 is 2…” she writes 2 xs horizontally “3 times…” and puts another 2 xs below the first one, her voice becoming stronger. “So the answer is how many xs there are if you fill in the columns and rows.” She fills in the other 4 x’s with a dash of the pencil, glancing up at her mom with wide eyes.

“Yes, you’ve got the idea, which is the hard part. The rest is just applying it until you have memorization. Okay, let’s talk about real-life examples, that will be more fun?” Her warm eyes hold Adeline’s, smiles spreading across both of their faces.

Sitting up, she nods quickly, her eyes lighting back up. “Okay! Real life stuff sounds much better.”

Mom grabs a pad of orange post-its. “Okay. This represents a baking tray, like what we just put the rolls on in the oven.” She says and writes ‘baking sheet’ across the top. Handing the pencil to Adeline, she pulls her closer again, nuzzling her hair. “Across the top we had four rolls, and then three going down. Can you draw that and tell me how many rolls are on that sheet?” Adeline takes the pencil and bounces slightly.

“Alright… three… four… fill it in… twelve?” Glancing up, she holds her breath as she waits for confirmation.

Giving her a nod and a squeeze, “Yeah! you can even check; if you count them up, you’ll see you’re right.” Pointing at each x in turn, they count together.

“Okay, that’s not too hard. I get the idea… but there’s so many of them, how will I ever remember them?” Her voice is quiet, full of bewilderment. Mom squeezes her again, rubbing a hand over her shoulder.

“I know it seems daunting, but once you’ve played with them a bit, they’ll get easier. There are also tricks for the ones that don’t stick right away. Okay, so that one tray has 12 rolls in it. Excellent. Now, what happens if there are two trays with the same arrangement? How many rolls do we have?” Grabbing another post it, she places it next to the other one.

Adeline flicks her tongue along her lip, her eyes narrowing as she thinks. “Well, I guess there’s two trays, and they each have 12…” She fills in the other post it note the same way. “And that’s basically 12 plus 12…” She writes out the arithmetic. “Which is 24. That makes sense. But.. if they’re next to each other, you could say it’s 3 rows of 8, right? which is 3 8’s…” She stares off into space, rolling the concepts together. “And that’s 24, to. So there’s a lot of ways to get the same answer.” her face lights up in delight. “that’s interesting, that there’s different ways to get the same answer. I didn’t realise it was like that.” Pulling the multiplication table towards her, she scans it, more curious.

“That’s a fabulous insight, honey!” Mom’s face breaks open into a wide grin, her eyes sparkling. “Math, and lots of life is like that. So many different ways to get to the same place, and they’re all right.” Giving a final squeeze, she stands up and walks over to the oven to check the rolls. “It’s a process of deciding which one works for you the best, and that’s what’s the most fun about it.” Flicking the light on, she peeks in to see the rolls, browning, the heat warming her face.

Bouncing in her chair, Adeline squeaks. “So really, I could just remember which ones are the same, which leaves the ones that are unique, and that would be a lot less to memorize! Okay, maybe this isn’t so bad! Thanks Mom!” Rushing around the counter, she throws her arms around Mom’s waist, burrowing her face in her chest.

Pulling her in, She wraps her arms around Adeline, burrowing her face in the top of her head. “Of course, dear! I love helping you learn, you’re so clever.”

Adeline tilts her head back to look into her Mom’s eyes. “Really? I’m clever?” Her eyes quickly blink in surprise, her eyebrows knitting together. “I don’t… feel clever.” Nibbling her lip, she waits for the confirmation.

“Addie… you’re so focused on what’s not making sense, you don’t witness your own process of when you do get it. Yes, you are clever.” Mom’s cheeks dimple, and she strokes her daughter’s hair.

And with that, the oven starts singing “I’m walking on sunshine and don’t it feel good, hey, alright now, don’t it feel good!” And suddenly they realize how amazing the bread rolls smell.