Still Trying to Crack the Math Nut

  On his progress report, Max has made no progress in "life skills math."  
  i'm sure he needs to take his time to count change.  After all this time, ID'ing counting coins is boring.  He doesn't seem to see a purpose for counting change in the store, much less paper coins for a worksheet, and, at 22, it's "been there, done that."
  The dice game, we can't do longer than 5-10 minutes, but the concepts fascinate him.  Until he's overloaded.

 Figuring Out How It Works

  4 minus 18 should be the same as 18 minus 4.  If those were + signs, you could do that.  And all the different ways multiplication ideas can be expressed, get his rapt attention.
  His teacher reports that he finds school math "frustrating" when they try difficult stuff.  i don't know what the "difficult" stuff is.  i wonder if it's an entire sheet of "do this."
  Yes, definitely time to talk.  We'll work it out this week.
  Max and i are doing maybe 4 problems in depth.  20 ways to Sunday.

And What the Heck am i Doing?

  i've been looking online to get a handle on what's happening here.  The article i cited above is the only one i could understand.  Wikipedia's offerings on teaching math were more accessible than anything else, but they lost me when they started using all those technical terms.  i think i might be using "fuzzy math: or "new math: (which is what i was taught), but i can't understand what's written enough to say.
  But Max is interested, and i think that translates to learning, though it probably won't fly in the classroom.