They did estimation and rounding off in maths this week and my son has taken it to heart. How long will homework take? Approximately twenty minutes. Did you brush? Approximately. How many chapatis do you want? Approximately three, which turned out to mean five. His ammamma asked him on the phone how school was and he said "approximately good". She is still asking me what that means.
Ours went through "technically" at that age. "Technically I did finish my homework." It lasted about a term and was replaced by something worse.
approximately good is a perfectly honest review of a school day
Ask him to round the chapatis to the nearest ten next time. He'll become precise very quickly.
Our teenager's version is "basically". Basically done, basically clean. Basically nothing is ever done 🤷
Something to look forward to, then. I'll enjoy approximately while it lasts.
This made me laugh. At least he's using the word correctly, more or less, which is better than most of what I get from my teenager.
Five chapatis is not approximately three though. Someone needs to check his rounding 😄
Grade 1 here, and he has just discovered "exactly". It was exactly a hundred kilometres to his friend's house. Exactly a million mosquitoes in the car. I suppose approximately is the next stage.
Keep going
More from the parents who were here.