What we are using

06 February 2009

WR18 - This doesn't make any sense


I finally started two-digit multiplication this week with CC and LB has worked her way up to the number 6. I am now convinced that I have no idea what I am doing.

This week, I read the Gingerbread Man to LB, and we even made homemade playdough. It is funny considering how much we do art that we now have to cycle back to the beginning again.

Since it was Ground Hog day and Imbolc this week, we read a story about the Cailleach and the Bride. We also read some legends that said that if the weather was fair, the Cailleach had made it that way so that she could gather a lot of wood for a long winter and if the weather was cold or wet that she didn't need much wood because the winter wouldn't last much longer. We of course had a beautiful, clear day so we were concerned about a long winter. The 70's the following day cleared away much of that worry.

We read about Medieval China and started Medieval Japan in SOTW2. We also read some really good stories in 1001 Arabian Nights. The Story of the Little Beggar is the funniest story we have read in a long time. It had us laughing for days.

We are working on our Robert Frost poem and it is going well. I think we should have the whole thing memorized next week or the week after. I couldn't find the spelling book this week so we skipped it. IEW is still going well. We are enjoying the lessons and CC likes the rule I made that if the IEW lesson covers a grammar topic that we don't have to do GWG that day so she feels like she is getting something.

CC made rubber balls for science, learned about hand building clay, and saw some Chinese acrobats. LB started ballet. We had a great time at the park with our friends. LB sounded out words with her sister yesterday in the car - she sounded out AND, CAN, and HAT. We even met another homeschooling family that lives in town.

I have been putting off starting double-digit multiplication, but found that CC had worked every problem in the textbook, workbook and IP book that comes before the double digit multiplication so I could find no more excuses. We started it, and she found it easy. Very easy. Too easy. She even liked it. Now my problem is that while she can do a two-digit multiplication problem and get the right answer, I think that she has no idea how it works. For example, a problem was 54 x 3 . She thought about it a few moments then wrote 162. I was amazed. She didn't understand why I thought it was hard so I started wondering how she was doing the problems. I asked her to explain it to me. I thought she would start with 3 x 4 is 12 or something like that. She just looked blankly at me and said - "It just is." So I tried showing her how I worked them and she didn't understand. I even gave her 50 x 3 and 4 x 3 and showed her - she just looked blankly at me and asked why I would do it that way. I just don't understand math the same way she does.

And speaking of not understanding..... Today I gave LB seven little cups with the numbers 0-6 marked in them and a pile of beans and a die. I instructed her to roll the die, the put that number of beans in the cup with that number on it. Simple. She had lots of fun trying to roll each of the numbers so that she could fill each cup. However, she exclaimed "Mommy, this zero just doesn't make any sense." I asked her what the problem was, and she said she couldn't get zero on the die. CC said she had tried to explain it to her. I walked her through a couple of numbers then asked her to give me zero beans, and she obligingly handed me nothing which I put in the zero cup then I asked her how many beans were in the cup and she said zero. But her problem was that the die didn't roll a zero for her. I asked her if it would be easier if I just took the 0 away and she said "Yes, please. It doesn't make any sense." I was trying to reinforce the number recognition and the idea of zero at the same time. I guess I should have just stuck to the number recognition and saved zero for a day when I was available to sit with her.

Even though we were busy this week, it was a very good week. BUT I just don't know. Sometimes I don't feel like I know what I am doing even when everything is going according to plan.

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Wow. Your math story is amazing with the 2 digit multiplication... have fun with division! :) Your report was fun to read, and I love your pictures too!