It was while shoveling snow this past winter that I was surprised to learn just how well my children know the metric system. I had measured a foot of snow in my driveway, and when we got inside my nine-year-old announced that we had 30 centimeters on the ground.

So just in case a few of us grownups need to do some catching up, here goes. Yes, one foot is about 30 centimeters, because 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters. So 100 centimeters - a meter - equals about 39 inches. Thus, a meter is about three inches longer than a yard.

With summer coming, let's switch over to temperature and do some Celsius preparation for warmer weather. Now you probably know 0 Celcius is 32 Fahrenheit. With that basic relationship, just remember that for every 10 degrees Celsius you go up, the increase is 18 degrees Fahrenheit. So 10 Celsius is 50 Fahrenheit, 20 Celsius is 68 Fahrenheit, and 30 Celsius is 86 Fahrenheit. And that gets us into the kind of temperature territory you'll need to speak fluent Celsius in the coming months.