One of the great things about being human is our taste buds.  With brief and not very interested research, apparently most animals have taste buds, but that’s okay.  The fact that I am a mammal and not a rock means that I have taste buds and I can use the fact to create interest.  In fact, taste buds are kind of a source of commerce.

 Commerce is a nice word.  It is all in how you approach a thing.  Where does the line of bribery lie?  It is large ethical question, to be sure, but to localize it just a bit, let’s put it into perspective.  Here…honey, here are some chocolate chips to have when you have done your math...as soon as you are finished…dangle, dangle….this is clearly bribery.

But, here are some chocolate chips.  Let’s count them.   Eight!  Good for you.  I bet we can count them by two’s.  Eight is a good number.

Can you make eight into two groups that are the same size?  You can!?  Look at that.  Can’t trick you, can I?  Can you make four groups, with the same amount in each group?  How many in each group? Can we divide them into three equal groups?  Hmmm.  Nope, that didn’t work.  So two groups of four and four groups of two makes eight.

Hey, smartie pants.  Okay, let’s put all eight back together.  Let’s pretend you give me one of your chocolate chips.  How many do you have left?  Yes!  Seven.  What if I had one more?  Six, that’s it.
You can eat them up now.

Lesson over.  Five minutes.  Raisins or Goji Berries can be used for people who don’t believe in chocolate.

So entrenched are my children in chocolate chip math that even when they are doing algebra they will ask me for a few chocolate chips.  It helps them think I guess.