Hi Gwen,

Your question doesn't make sense to me. I think it should say

Scott has 13 music boxes that play either patriotic songs or holiday tunes. He has 5 more music boxes that play holiday tunes than he has music boxes that play patriotic tunes. How many of each kind does he have?

You can use guess and check to solve this problem. He has more holiday tune boxes than patriotic tune boxes so lets start with a guess of 2 music boxes that play patriotic tunes. The number of boxes he has that play holiday tunes is 5 more than this so he has 3 + 5 = 8 music boxes that play holiday tunes. Thus in total he has 2 + 8 = 10 music boxes. But we know that he has 13 music boxes so the numbers we tried are too small. A better guess would be 3 music boxes that play patriotic tunes. What happens then?

Penny