Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
Math Problems
"So how was school today guys?" Jackie asked Jasmine and Houston as the family sat around the table eating spaghetti for dinner.
"Good." Houston replied happily.
"That's good little buddy. How about you Jazz?" Jackie asked the little girl.
"Bad." She replied dismally.
"Bad? Why sweetheart?" Jackie asked her.
"Because I did a bad job on a worksheet." The child stated.
"You did, what kind of worksheet?" Jackie asked.
"Math."
"Did you bring it home?" Jackie asked her.
"Yeah."
"Can I see it?"
"No." The child said.
"Sweetheart I'm not mad at you, I just want to help you if you are having a hard time." Jackie assured her.
Jasmine went over to her backpack, grabbed her worksheet out of it and then brought over the worksheet and handed it to Jackie.
Jackie looked at the worksheet.
"Jasmine, you didn't do a bad job on this worksheet at all, you did a very good job, this is a one hundred problem math worksheet and you only missed five of them, that's awesome!" Jackie told her.
"No." Jasmine argued as she pointed to one of the problems that were circled in red indicating that it was incorrect.
"You did a good job." Jackie repeated with a smile.
Jackie then looked at the worksheet more closely and noticed a pattern with the ones Jasmine missed.
0+2, 0+8, 0+4, 0+1, 0+9.
"Hmmm, those should be the easy ones." Jackie thought to herself.
"Jasmine why don't you go get your number line and I'll help you fix the ones you missed." Jackie offered.
"Ok." The little girl agreed immediately happily before she dashed up the stairs.
(A number line is a line with the numbers 1-20 on them that help young children count-some number lines go up to higher numbers but because of Jasmine's age she only uses 1-20).
Jasmine came back downstairs a minute later carrying her number line.
"Ok kiddo, do this problem for me." Jackie told her as she pointed to the problem that said 0+2.
"Ok." Jasmine replied.
Jackie watched as Jasmine pointed at the number 1 and then counted up 2.
"Three." Jasmine replied as she looked at her mother.
"No sweetheart, that's close, but that's not right, try this one." Jackie told her as she pointed to 0+8.
Again Jackie watched as Jasmine pointed at the number 1 and then counted up 8.
"Nine." Jasmine replied.
"No sweetie, here watch mommy do it." Jackie told her as Jackie took the number line from Jasmine's hand.
Jackie pointed to zero and counted up 8.
"See Jazz, you are starting at 1 but you need to start at 0, see its 0+8, not 1+8."
"No mommy, it's supposed to be 1+8 because zero isn't a number." Jasmine replied.
"What? Yes zero is a number." Jackie informed her.
"It is?" The child asked sounding completely astounded by this fact.
"Yes, it is." Jackie told her.
In all her years of teaching Jackie had never been told by a student that zero wasn't a number, where Jasmine came up with that one Jackie didn't know.
"Try to do the 0+2 problem again." Jackie told her with a smile.
This time Jasmine started at 0 and counted up 2.
"Two?" She asked Jackie as if she wasn't entirely sure.
"That's right, good job! Try 0+4 now."
"Four." Jasmine said after she had counted, this time she sounded much more sure of herself.
"Good job! Do the other ones you missed, I bet you'll get them all right!" Jackie told her.
Jasmine did and in no time flat Jasmine had fixed all of the ones that she had gotten wrong and boy was she proud of herself.
"Good job Jasmine, I'm very proud of you." Jackie told her.
Jasmine beamed at her.
"Can I take my worksheet to school tomorrow to show Miss Masters?" Jasmine asked.
"You bet." Jackie said.
"Jasmine, let me ask you something sweetheart." Jackie told her.
"What mommy?"
"If you didn't think zero was a number what did you think the problems on the worksheet had zero's in them for?"
"I thought Miss Masters made a mistake when she made the worksheet and the zeros were suppose to be one mommy." She responded honestly.
Jackie stifled a laugh.
"Nope, Miss Masters didn't make a mistake." She assured her.
Jasmine then put the worksheet back in her backpack so she could show her beloved teacher tomorrow and after she was done she played with her siblings until it was time for the kids' baths and then bed time.
When Jackie went to bed herself a little later that evening she smiled to herself. She was glad that Jasmine had gotten the hang of adding when it came to zeros.
The End!
*Note-Miss Masters isn't some horribly mean teacher that gives the kids 100 math problem worksheets, she doesn't have a choice, all teachers have to do that, it helps them assess how well their students are mastering their math skills, in this case addition.