Thursday, November 10, 2011

Second post today!

In a rare glut of posts, I had to brag while it was still fresh. We decided to go ahead and get our park time in early, and saved math for the late afternoon. (see earlier post) I was worried, we ended our park time with Shannon in a horrible mood. She was thirsty, she'd been hit in the ear and gut by our dog, I was taking too long to leave, and was in tears. Full-on "life hates me and the feeling's mutual" mode. I feared for the scene at home when we'd attempt math.

A side note. We're... well, a couple of months "behind" on math. Last year was not a good year and we did very little formal schoolwork. So be it. So she's still working on her second grade work, we should start third grade math by March.

Anyway, we're working today on 4-digit subtraction. I'm worried because Right Start Math teaches it in a method that's supposed to be easier, but it's different from how I learned it. We're actually starting the subtracting at the thousands, instead of ones. The book says it'll be easier in the long run, but it's going to be slow going for teaching, because I need to get used to the method, hard for me to teach "trading" instead of "borrowing." Today's lesson is scheduled as a 2-day lesson, a visual representation of what we're doing.

Shannon? Nailed it. Immediately. Instead of breaking the lesson up, she plowed straight through it, and when she got to her worksheet, did the whole thing even when I told her that she could save half for tomorrow because it was "supposed" to be a two-dayer. Bam. Two days "worth" of math done and completed in 40 minutes. No errors. Easy-peasy. If you read my post from a week or two ago about the math block she's trying to build... Boom, down it comes today. We celebrated, and she positively GLOWED over her new-found ability and confidence in the subject.

And that, my friends, is why I homeschool.

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