Day 3

At the end of the day, I guess if we got the work done, that's the important thing.

Today we went to a new class.  Well, the class isn't new, but it's new to us.  It's a folk dancing class, and it looked like much more fun than I thought it would be.  Emily constantly amazes me how she is willing to put herself out there to try new things.  She really did well! 

We also went to the zoo and fed the animals and met some people we didn't know with some people we did.  Again, the kids did well, and even though the temperature was in the 90's, they held it together until they could tear me away from the conversations about an hour and a half after our arrival. 

So far, so good, you say.  Well, there the gravy train ends.  Math was a disaster with Emily.  Maybe I had the day too scheduled.  Um, no, no maybe about it.  Got to learn to pace myself.  But I can't let math go on any day, since we have 120 lessons, and we certainly can't do more than one lesson in a day anymore.  We used to get away with that in the lower grades, but they've got our number now, and it's more paced to one a day.  Ugh.  The thing that gets me is that the reason she gives me grief isn't because she doesn't know the stuff, it's because she's bored.  And I fault the curriculum for that, but someone insists that this is the best one.  It's REPETITIVE REPETITIVE REPETITIVE.  And just in case, they repeat everything one more time.  Then, to be sure, bring it up later. 

I see why they do it.  It does really drive the concept home, and the fact that they bring the same concepts up over and over reinforces the bonds wiring the brain.  I get it.  The trouble is, the kids get sick of it.  Oh well.  They'd have the same problem in school, so I guess I just have to keep plugging away.  At least there are some things that make math fun for them.  Several books are a help.  The Number Devil by Enzensberger, or the Life of Fred series by Schmidt (for a little older kids) are very entertaining while being invaluably educational.  There are web sites that have games that also help.  We have the Personal Math Trainer for the DS as well. 

I guess I just have to mix it up a bit and keep going.  That seems to have been my philosophy throughout, so on we go...