Daily Post
I think I just destroyed my sensitive, eczema ridden hands. Our elf told us to make cinnamon ornaments today so I was kneading out cinnamon, applesauce and glue. Cinnamon is crazy painful on sensitive hands. I should have known.
I’m doing all the fun little projects and guess who is enjoying them with me? Would that be my children? No, of course not. The neighbor girl loves arts and crafts and adult attention, so she and I are having a fine time doing these projects while my own children wander off. Erik is simply not into any of this stuff that doesn’t involve immediate sanctification with chocolate or math. Elsa is a little young to enjoy all this stuff. I have high hopes for our eventual mother-daughter bonding activities. At this point I’m just letting her enjoy the process, even though it is not really much more than her smooshing stuff around and poking holes in it.
Did I ever mention that she’s almost potty trained. She’s had a dry diaper every time I’ve checked for several days now. We only have two diapers left in the house and when those are done. . . we’re done. I am terrified.
We went to a friend’s house for dinner Saturday night and Elsa had a major, disgusting accident. I need to remember to show her exactly where the facilities are because I think that was the big problem–she just didn’t know what to do.
Did I mention that I’m terrified?
Update to the purple cart problem: I think I’ve solved the tantrums and it was much simpler than sewing a purple shopping cart cover. Whenever we are going shopping Elsa starts telling me she’s going to ride in a purple cart. I’ve been telling her, “sorry honey, but Target only has red carts” (or whatever fits). Crazy idea, but it works! When we get to the store she says “Elsa’s red cart!” and that’s that. She is really making some big cognitive leaps lately and her sentence structure has exploded into real, grown-up sounding sentences.
[Back after a 15 minute homework break]
OMG. I do not understand first grade math. How hard can this be?
Problem: 9+4
You’d think the answer would be a simple 13. Erik thinks the answer is a simple 13. WHY OH WHY is the answer not a simple 13?
Instead the whole thing should look like this:
9+4 = 9+1+3 = 10+3 = 13
I guess this is prepping them for learning how to re-group? I don’t know. All I know is, I’m with Erik. Why do we have to do the middle work when we already know the answer?
I just sent his teacher an e-mail. Maybe she can explain it. Erik had some issues with his report card and this method of doing math was one of them. I can see why he has an issue. Who wants to do two extra steps when you know the answer?
Guess I better wrap this up and do my mommy bedtime duty.
margievz said,
December 11, 2012 @ 7:48 pm
Wait til they get to third grade. I swear Fae brought home algebra last week. Do they really need to know algebra in elementary school? Sheesh!
bethany actually said,
December 12, 2012 @ 11:42 am
It always used to irritate me when I had to show my work for math stuff like that too. I already knew how to add 37 + 59 in my head!
Now that I’m a grown-up (and a homeschooler!) I know there are several pretty good reasons, though. 🙂
–Even if a kid like Erik understands how to reach the sum in one way, it doesn’t necessarily mean he understands there are other ways to get to the same point. Being forced to do it another way teaches him to think creatively and stretch outside his comfort zone a little bit, which is a really useful life skill.
–It teaches him (or at least lays the groundwork for teaching him) that not everyone thinks exactly as he does, which for super-smart kids like Erik is sometimes difficult to understand. (I know–I was one of those kids too!)
–It teaches him how to explain his thought process.
–And if nothing else, it teaches him that sometimes, he might have to follow directions even if he doesn’t understand the reason; and that there are always going to be people who aren’t as smart as he is and sometimes he just has to play along on the outside even though his brain is already 20 miles ahead of everyone else.
All of these reasons aren’t going to make sense to Erik now, of course, and it would be almost impossible to explain most of them to him. But they might help you keep your sanity. 🙂