Cooking+math=fun?

Around our house, I've been slowly backing my way out of one cooking job-breakfast. Okay, for many of you, breakfast is probably an afterthought. Not really a big deal, except when you're feeding 10 hungry kiddos! They need some serious fuel, and a piece of toast just isn't going to cut it. I know many people do cold cereal for breakfast, which we do once a week, but it can get pretty pricey when my crew goes thru 2-3 boxes at a sitting. So we make most of our breakfasts from scratch. Sure, we have oatmeal sometimes, but it's fun to have something different. This is where my kids come in. My 5 biggest are each responsible for cooking breakfast one day. Being that our mornings are quite hectic, I have them do it the day before, as one of their chores (unless it's eggs!) They love the freedom of choosing what THEY love! They have made everything from pancakes and waffles to coffee cakes to cinnamon rolls. I am always there to supervise, but try to let them do as much as they can on their own. Today was Michael's turn to make it and he chose what I thought was a simple recipe-cinnamon bread-or at least it's simple until you have to triple the recipe. It is essentially a quick bread with a yummy cinnamon sugar topping. He got through measuring out the eggs and milk okay-those were big round numbers, but when it came to the fractions, well...that was a different story. He had done a lot of fractions this year, so I was surprised he was having such a hard time. It just wasn't computing how to get 3/4 cup of something when you already have 1/2 cup. Okay...out come the math lessons! I got out a piece of paper and went over converting the half cup into fourths to see just how much more we needed. Blank stare....hmmmm...so I tried the pie explanation-drawing a picture and showing how dividing a pie into different sections, you could have the same amount, even though the pie was divided into different amounts. Again, blank stare......Then came the kicker.."I can't do this! I hate this recipe and I'm never making it again!" What?! Now I was determined..we will get this..for goodness sake, we're homeschoolers....we can do this! I gave more explanations over the next 5 or 10 minutes, looking for some level of understanding, but of course, still talking in my same, sweet, calm, loving tone (NOT!). Finally, I saw a flicker of the light bulb! By goodness, I think he may have gotten it! Yes, we determined, he need 1/4 cup more to make 3/4 cup! Yay! We both agreed, though, this was NOT a recipe we were going to make again anytime soon. My son, Michael, just peeked over my shoulder and said, "Be sure you put 'And I didn't have fun doing it!' at the bottom, okay?" Enough said?