Feet in a Yard

I had football on one night and both my 6 year old daughter E and 5 year old son C were watching with me. They wanted to understand the rules of football, so I tried to keep it as simple as I could. I explained that they had 4 tries to go 10 yards. If they succeeded, they got another 4 tries until they could pass the goal line for points. They could also kick it between the yellow posts for points. Then my kids asked me what a yard was.

Instead of making a dad joke, I explained that it was a form of measurement and that there were 3 feet in a yard (also requires more restraint from making another dad joke…who was hopping around on one leg back there?!). They understood now what a yard was and now I wanted them to do some math. I asked both of them how many feet were in 10 yards (again, more dad jokes were not said).

They thought about it and I tried to give them clues about the answer. It was still tough for them to reason it out. Even adding a 0 behind the 1 and the 3 didn’t help (since it is base 10). That was fine that they didn’t get it and I just wanted them to practice reasoning things out and solving real world problems they encounter instead of just knowing things (and not knowing how to apply them).

I thought that was the end of the conversation and we went back to watching. After about 5 minutes, C said 30. It took a second for me to register that he was answering my question about how many feet were in 10 yards. He actually figured it out! I’m glad he stuck with it and it definitely shows his persistence! Wow!