Meet the Austins and Algebra

I have been trying to get Harry to show his math work since he started pre-algebra. He can do math in his head a lot faster than me and he knows it, so it's bugged him that I want him to write it out. Last week I made him redo an entire page of work that may or may not have been right because there were just answers. (Before you think I'm super mean, he was told before he even started to show his work.)

Anyway, our night time read aloud is Meet the Austins. It's one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it over and over again and I really wanted a read aloud that I liked. In it, Vicky (the narrator) talks about going to her friend's house to check her math. She says, "...I find if I don't check my problems I'm apt to make silly mistakes in adding or subtracting that makes the entire problem wrong even if I've been doing it the right way."

Harry sat up in bed and said. "So, is that why you want me to show my math work?"

Yes, Harry, yes it is.

 Thank you Madeleine L'Engle.

I Wish I Could Quit You

Tis the season of curriculum choices. It used to be so fun to go through all of the different choices and think, "finally, I've got it. This is the perfect book/system that will teach the children the way they need and will keep them in their seats for more than a minute at a time." It's been long enough though, that I know there is no way they're going to stay in their seats so I don't even look at what's out there.

I realized the other day though that I spent the whole day talking and giving instruction. By the end of the day I was tired. Tired of hearing my own voice and of having to explain things over and over. I was ready to ditch MCT--too much talking, AoPS--to much looking over the book and asking, "do you understand why this is?", just too much.

So I decided that next year I wasn't going to do two levels of MCT anymore. We were going to go with WWS and be done with it. (Hang on, there's a point to this story.)

Yesterday Harry and I read in his World of Poetry (MCT Voyage Level Poetry) about what MCT considers "Funny Feet." The pyrrhic foot, amphibrach, and amphimacer apparently aren't well known in English poetry but might come up sometimes, so they are in the book. (Granted that I have a MS and have never heard of them, but that's okay.) For some reason the Funny Feet just seemed hilarious. We spent about ten minutes just saying the words. We absolutely cracked ourselves up. 

Then I read a similar chapter on meter in Sam's Building Poems (MCT Town Level Poetry) and he already knew everything because he had listened into Harry and I talking about dactyls and spondee. His assignment was to write four four-line poems using four different meters that included four of the same words. And after only a little hemming and hawing he wrote his first hilariously funny poem.

Later at the grocery store Harry came up and told me, "Hey Mom, you know what would be funny, a poem made up of only spondee with phyrric foot." 

After that we decided if we ever created our own superhero, his battle cry would be "Spondee!"

So, I will go ahead and order the next levels of MCT Language Arts. And just get used to the idea that I'll continue to spend the next few years explaining, cajoling, and giggling. Because really, it's worth it. 

SPONDEE!

So, He's Doing Okay

Earlier today I wrote a post that talked about making sure Sam is confident in his work. Well, about thirty minutes later we discovered that he had a writing assignment. It said to write a paragraph about something he already knew. Since this type of assignment comes around a lot, I thought it would be a good idea to list things he could write about for future reference. I told him that and this was his response:

"whew, Mom. That's so many things."

Somehow I think he'll be okay.

Poor Neglected Blog

I don't know why I don't write more here. I want to, I think about it, but the thoughts never make it onto the page.

So, here's where we are right now.

Harry: knee deep in American history. He's reading the Joy Hakim books this year. Sometimes he does the worksheets and sometimes he just tells me what he's read. Language Arts is a combo of MCT and WWS. He's not a fan of writing--I'm pretty sure he'd rather have a root canal, if he knew what one was. But through both of those he's becoming a better writer and learning not to hate it quite so much. Science--ah, my old nemesis. We were using Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. But...there's always a but. It wasn't getting done. So instead he's working on the science-related Boy Scout merit badges. Right now he's working on Reptiles and Amphibians and Gardening.

As for Math--he loved Math Mammoth. Unfortunately it doesn't go up through PreAlgebra. So he's been trying out different programs in the hope that something would work. We're lucky in that we use a charter school and they I'm able to check out and try some of the main programs. He tried MUS but neither of us like it. Next he'll use the Art of Problem Solving. I'm hopeful about this program. Since he's in 6th grade he has plenty of time to go through it slowly and really understand what he's doing. Until we get the AOPS books though, he's using Khan Academy. That's been interesting. I'm finding some holes that are good to get patched up and he's enjoying himself. So it's a win-win right now.

Sam: Oh Sam. The kid that doesn't realize that he's actually the smartest kid on the block. Unfortunately. So I'm still spending a lot of my time showing him that he knows more than he thinks he knows. So, for instance, he's been working on part of the whole in Math Mammoth 4. You know, what is 1/4 of 60 and problems like that. When they're presented like that, he has no problem. But when they are word problems, it gets trickier. Like I said at the beginning of the year--this is the year to build up Sam's confidence. To give him the tools he needs to know that he can do anything.

He's working on California history this year (4th grade, of course) and reading about American history. I have him doing a lot of art projects because that is what he feels like he excels at. Which is fine, but at some point our house will be declared a museum instead of a house, I think. He's doing belt loops and pins for his science, which has been very interesting. He's working on the Science pin and Astronomy pin. Language Arts is MCT. He has an aversion to writing too, but for different reasons than Harry. Sam just has too many ideas trying for space on his paper.

So...we're all fine. Things are working and we're in a groove. Annika's at school and while I have my little grousing issues, she's doing well. She's in a 2/3 combo class and it pulls the second graders up a bit. Which I think is part of my good feelings for her in school. She's being challenged every day and in a class of incredibly good kids. It's a great situation for her and makes me a bit nervous for next year.

Emma joined the charter school's Early-Admission Kindergarten program. That way she can go to classes once a week and have fun there. She has arts & crafts, math, and cooking. She's the youngest at the school but thinks she owns it since she's been tagging along with everyone for so many years. She really looks forward to her days there, and honestly so do I. Our house is so quiet. Harry, Sam, and I use that time to go in depth in math since there aren't any distractions.

Maybe I should write smaller updates more often. If you've gotten to the end here, congratulations!