I am a Year 4 pupil of the only primary school in my maternal parent's village, which is located in the Southwest region of my country 🇳🇬.
My best subject is mathematics. Have I mentioned my name? No, I haven't.
My name is Ara 👧.

Every morning in my class, our teacher gives us maths sums to solve without pen and paper. He calls it "Mental Maths". This activity, though challenging, makes me like mathematics more than ever🔢🤗.

One Friday morning, our teacher gave us two (2) sums. These sums were difficult than the usual ones. He asked us to answer the sums during the weekend, and submit it the next Monday.

On getting home that day, I was so tired that I could not open my books. So, the next morning, I told grandma about the math sum and showed it to her in my book.

She looked closely at the sums, and after few seconds, she said, “I have work to do at my farm before midday, when I return, we will find answers to your math sums”.
Let's look at my sums.👆

Grandma continued, “But, I need you to help me with some tasks while I am at the farm so that we can do your math sums immediately I return.

First, get the basket that contains the snails I picked from the farm, yesterday. Take five paper bags from the room, and share all the thirty snails equally into the five bags. Take one bag out of the five bags to my sister.

Make sure to check that each bag contains equal number of snails.
The next task is to check for the bag of cassava-peel you kept at the backyard. The bag contains sixteen bowls. Share all the content of the bag into four equal portion

I want my goats to feed on equal portion everyday. Don’t forget to check that each portion contains the same number of bowls", she said. I finished the entire task; took my bath; ate my breakfast; and decided to take a nap under the tree.

Just as I woke up to see if grandma had returned, I saw her walking towards the house gently with a basket of palm nuts on her head. I quickly ran to help her with the load. She asked me not to worry as the basket was too heavy for me.

As she entered the house, she dropped the basket and sat on the stool at our doorstep. “Welcome ma,” I said. She replied in a low tone; looking tired, too. Then I continued, “Grandma, I finished the task you gave me. 😇

I gave grandaunt 1 bag out of 5 bags of snails. I also checked and saw that each of the bags was containing 6 snails each, out of the 30 snails in the basket.
🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🛍️🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🛍️🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🛍️🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🛍️🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚🛍️

After that, I shared the bag of cassava-peels containing 16 bowls into 4 equal portions. Now, the goats can get four 4 bowls of cassava peels for each day.
🍚🍚🍚🍚☀️🍚🍚🍚🍚☀️🍚🍚🍚🍚☀️🍚🍚🍚🍚☀️

After the long explanation, Grandma grinned👵,and said, “I can take a rest now , since you already have answers to your math sums”. I was surprised at her statement, and stammered, R-R-REALLY??? 🤨😳

"Yes", Grandma replied. She explained how the two sums was to help me get answers to my math sum. The answer to the first sum is the 6 snails which I gave to my grandaunt.
Therefore, 1 out of 5 parts that 30 equally divides into is 6

The sharing of 16 bowls of cassava peels for grandma's goats was the task that answered my second math sum. 4 bowls is the answer for the second sum.
Therefore, 1 out of 4 parts which 16 equally divides into is 4.

After all grandma's explanation, I grinned (just as she did earlier😁). Then I said, "Grandma you have spoken the answer to the math sums". "Maybe", she replied and she stood up to enter our room (to take a rest)🛌.