Practising The Moves
Question 4 was take-aways. Bo asked Sven to help.
Sven was very patient. He got out a small bowl and ten counters.
"Right," said Sven. "Take-aways are easy. Watch. We have ten counters. If I take three away, how many are left?"
Bo counted. Seven.
"That's it. That's a take-away. Ten take three is seven."
"Why is it called take-away?"
"Because you take some away. The maths test will say something like *ten minus three*. Minus means take away. Same thing."
Bo wrote it down.
*minus = take away. Easy.*
Sven did ten more take-aways with him. By the end, Bo could do them. He still needed his fingers, but he could do them.
Question 7 was about telling the time. Bo and his mama practised telling the time every evening that week. By Wednesday Bo could read 'half past' and 'o'clock'. By Thursday he could read 'quarter to' and 'quarter past'.
Question 9 was about money. Five-cent coins, ten-cent coins, twenty-cent coins. Bo's papa worked through them with him over breakfast.
By Friday morning Bo had a green tick next to every kind of question.
He still felt a little nervous. But the boss-fight was now mostly little fights, and he had practised every one.
He had a small piece of paper in his pocket with all his moves on it. He was not going to use it during the test (that would be cheating). But it felt good to have. Like having a map.