Oh! The Unexpected Math Surprise

Monday brought an unexpected math problem. Our goniometer for RightStart E disappeared. Being that it's pretty necessary for the rest of our lessons, we searched high and low. Being totally irritated because of the waste of time & energy (We never found it.), I decided to order another one. Frustrated, I was not about to quit math for a week. A practice page came in handy, but I wanted more progress and less tears.

It was then that I remembered to check my shelf. I dusted off a resource that I'd bought on impulse, but never used. It was one of those thing everyone rants and raves about, but when I saw it, I thought it was the most ridiculous math book I'd seen and was bummed I'd spent the money on it. Desperate, and because it claimed to address an issue we were having, we dove in.

In case you're wondering, the book is "Times Tales", by J. von Eggers. Seeing as my son is a bit older than most starting in this book, we went through it pretty quick. Almost finishing it in one sitting. To say he was delighted, would be an understatement! He loved it and he got it. The trigger memory method used was right up his alley and the promise of tearless times tables is in sight! He finished the book on his own and by dinner had it all memorized. He practiced again at breakfast and is now bent over his multivide practice problem, eagerly smiling triumphantly through the problems that on Monday brought him to tears. Victory!

What was daughter (5yo) doing all this time? Why eavesdropping, of course! And...as can be expected, she has also learned many of the problems before she's even learned more than basic addition. I shake my head in wonder and am so pleased that I've redeemed an otherwise wasted purchase.

I can't help but wonder if God allowed the loss of our goniometer for such a time as this! :) I was so irritated over the loss of a piece of plastic, and God used the experience to bless us.

Living Math Resource

In planning out the rest of our school year, I realized that daughter's math lessons would not take every day. What to do with the other days? I could skip 'em...

OR WE COULD READ SOME LIVING MATH BOOKS!

You'll never guess which I chose!! :)

I immediately turned to this great site for direction. The fact that a homeschooling mom put this together just awes me! I printed out this list for my 5yo daughter and we will work through the list (which we've already read some of!).

I just love resources like this.

They save me so much time and energy. I just can't tell you--well, maybe YOU know! :)

This site also offers many other great resources including articles, lesson plans, game lists... You just have to see it to believe it.

Lose the Clock, But Not the Timer

I'm a scheduler. There. I said it.

I've done MOTH (Managers of Their Homes). I've done 'em all. I DO learn something new each time. Sometimes I RE-learn those forgotten lessons... Like the one that says, "Do NOT put times on your schedule! YOU'LL BE SORRY!" But no. Gotta learn it the hard way, even if I learn it quick.

This time all it took was a trip to the bathroom. Yep. Son needed a rather l o n g break in the restroom, but THAT wasn't on the schedule! You gotta love cut and paste on Excel; particularly CUT. DELETE. It's outta there! The times column is gone. Replaced by a nice limit as to how long to spend on each item. That would be SHORT limits, as in "Short Lessons" which Charlotte Mason advocates and may very well be the thing that sets us free from "I HATE SCHOOL" .

This was my first step: re-create the schedule. After total chaos in the day, order seems appropriate. Especially order that brings joy and productivity. When you focus on "short lessons"--anywhere from 10-40 minutes, depending on age--it's amazing the things that you can fit in a day! We can do art again. And spend time drawing. And time outside. It's amazing what you can do when you get math done before dark! Oh. And there's music and ALL the wonderful things I'd dropped because I was "doing too much" and making the day too long. Now they are all on the schedule throughout the week and we always get done with our main subjects by 12:00 or 12:30.

Now I don't do them the same, and some I've had to discard the previous curriculum, but the point was to learn them, not choke on them! We've brought back some wonderful old favorites such as reading and studying the hymn writers using the Mr. Pipes series. No one ever says they "hate" that!

Ordering the day is the perfect ideal. It is one of the things that first attracted me to MOTH: the idea that you can make a list of everything that you'd WANT to do in a day, then schedule it. The fact that you may not be able to get those three hours of math in can be tough! But 30 minutes can work too! Heehee! :)

The truth is, we are doing a 15 minute lesson, with 15 minutes starting on problems. Then later, he has another 15 minutes to finish. He really likes this much better and seems to remove a lot of pressure. If he still can't get it done, it doesn't feel as if he hasn't done a thing, wasted a lot of time, and it's the end of the world, if you know what I mean.

I can't tell you the burden that has been lifted.

We still must continually work on breaking our old habits and establishing our new ones, but we'll get there.

So far, so good!

On Teaching Math

Back to the basics:

1. Do not remove your eyes from the page.
2. Keep your pencil in your hand, ready to write at all times.
3. Do not converse with others.
4. Do not move.
5. Do not even think about thinking about anything else.
6. Go from one problem to the next, either across the row, or down the column. No jumping around!

Maybe THIS, and me standing LITERALLY right OVER him will get us through a math page in less than THREE HOURS.

Goal: 30 min. I'm feeling victory!

So Much To Tell: The Rough Spots

Our roughest spots out of the gate these past three days, were undeniably math and spelling: two places we've achieved the most and had the best results curriculum wise.

First off, as we moved to Level E with RightStart, there was seemingly no review. Son panicked and did not handle his fear well. The lack of summertime practice took it's toll and patience became the order of the day as I watched him struggle to remember his tens facts. (It has begun to come back quickly now.) Needless to say, math took a good hour. There were tears and lots of hugs. We're over it now. :) Prayer helped immensely and then there was this...

I took the advice of the great Andrew Pudewa and used a white board for the first time. Success! Son loves the board and has asked to use it everyday so far. More than that, his attitude has done a complete about face. Of course, it may also have to do with the disciplinary tactic that I'm resorting to.

I'm calling it "positive reinforcement". Every time he whines or cries and utters words in the categories of "I hate..., I can't..., No...", he must write three things down that he loves about school. It will be a running list and no two items may be the same. The more he utters, the deeper he's going to have to dig. It's my most brilliant mommy moment in quite a while, if I do say so myself. He gets it and there's no room for misunderstanding.

Back to the math. It was just today (third day) that I heard it: "This is fun!" I'm recording it here for posterity so that I'll remember that, if even for a moment, math was fun. My cup runneth over.

The last tactic that I embraced was that of letting son decide when he would do his math. He has wanted it first thing when he is fresh. A bit of good wisdom that has helped. I think we're over the hurdle now, so we're going to try it after Bible. (I like to have Bible first thing, don't you?)

The second bump in the road was spelling. This makes little sense to me. He's good at it, it's not hard and there was nothing new. We continued the same routine (with Spell to Write and Read) and began with review words. Mentally, he's gotten into an attitude rut with spelling and he knows it. A couple of things will help: more prayer! use of the "positive reinforcement" tactic, and the use of the recorded spelling lists on the ipod. Also, he does like his new notebook pages for spelling. Today there was nary a peep from him about it. The conniption fit of Monday is just a faded memory. May it ever be so.

That's the extent of our rough spots so far. Well, unless you count daughter's "adjustments" into a learning routine...but that's a different story!

Strategy

It's funny what you can get away with when you don't tell your children what you are up to. My son had no idea I was doubling his math lessons for the past week or so. He's had no idea that I waited till his favorite part of math--geometry--to pile it on just so we could finish sooner.

He knows now. He was so surprised and delighted to find out he was doing so much more than he thought. AND, that he was going to be finishing lessons sooner because of it.

Strategy. We moms can use a little strategy now and then, don't you think? Now if I can just think of a strategic way to get everything else done...

Math: Decision '08

So I get to the convention. Beeline it to RightStart to place my annual order. But I had a question. The question about what comes AFTER. That dreaded question that I will need an answer to in the next couple of years. No! It's not that far off. I'm long term planning, remember...so I've gotta "know".

Well, they point me to the next booth: "Video Text Interactive". Never heard of it. So I hear the shpeal. Not overwhelmed. Dollar signs flashing before my eyes, and all. I put the question behind me and move on.

Two aisles over I see this huge yellow banner and "Teaching Textbooks". Now them I've heard of briefly. I talk to the family manning the booth and am very impressed. Not only that, images of my son and his struggles with daily math are tearing me up and I start to have vain imaginings of a life without the words..."I hate math!"

I'm so encouraged that I call the husband and son at home for them to check out the website and play with the sample lessons. I go back to RightStart and cancel my order for the son.

Fast forward two days and I'm home checking the website. Husband doesn't like it. Son loves the computer part. I start looking at levels and realize their scope and sequence is WAY different from what we've been doing. Son is actually so far ahead of this program, instead of Math 4, he'd be closer to Math 7. Hmmm.

I start poking around on the site and realize there is NOTHING about who they are or what their methodology is. There is no INFORMATION. This begins to bug me. A LOT. Now, over at RightStart there is TONS of info. They not only go into their philosophy of teaching, but with research to back it up. This is what sold me on it in the first place! That and the glowing recommendations. Now, in all fairness to Teaching Textbooks, they have little videos on their site, but NONE of them worked so I have no idea what they say!

So, the hard part. Letting the son know that we were not going to use the totally "fun" video game math program. I was expecting tears and meltdown. What I got was..."Okay." Ahhhh! Music to my ears! I told him we'd stick with what we were doing and maybe find a math game for fun. He was content.

RightStart has been a great program for three years. The only reason we have any problems with it, I'm beginning to see, is the pressure I have put on him. Mostly to perform at a certain speed. Any speed other than slow motion. I have easily frustrated, and that has frustrated him. I repent!!! I've learned my lesson! I see the trees now...through the forest of practice problems!

So RightStart called me a couple of hours ago to verify my order. I had them re-add next year's level to the order and I still get the free shipping.

What can I say. When you have a good thing, stick with it! Don't question it!