Owned by a 1st grade math worksheet.

This was not the first time I misunderstood the instructions for one of Connor’s homework assignments. But after spending a lot of time in college working with Euclidean geometry, Boolean logic and business formulas like Altman’s Z-score Ratio, I thought I had at least until the 5th grade before the math worksheets would defeat me.

Then along came “Double Dominoes”. Don’t know why it became the mind bender from hell. As usual the only complicated part was the instructions. See the actual worksheet below. The part that got me was “Draw the domino that shows the double plus one.”

OK. Does this mean the next “Double Domino” (i.e. the double that is plus one)? Or does it mean the sum of the previous domino plus one? Since the name of the worksheet is “Double Dominoes” I decided to roll the dice and assume it meant the next double domino in the sequence. Nope. The instructions should have said “Draw the domino that shows the sum of the previous dominoes dots plus one.”

I felt bad about not understanding the instructions until I read his teachers explanation: “When you double a number, just add 1”. Hmmmmm. I better let Drew know to check our numbers quick. The auditors are here and we’ve been multiplying by 2 the whole time.