We were driving home from Catherine's violin lesson today when Catherine started telling me about an article she'd read in one of her old Yes Mag(an excellent Canadian science magazine for kids). It was about prime numbers and included a bunch of neat tricks and facts about the number 13.
"I think 13 is my favourite number," she said when she was done.
But then, to my delight, she added, "Prime numbers are awesome."
I glanced back at her. She was staring out the window with a goofy smile on her face.
"Be careful," I said, "You're starting to sound like a math geek."
"So? That's not a bad thing you know"
My turn to wear the goofy smile.
She's a math geek and she likes it! Woo hoo!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
One of Those, "Here's What We Do in a Day," Posts
We've actually managed to settle into a homeschooling routine here. I've not been eager to write about it because it sometimes seems as if when I do mention here it's not too long before I shift gears or something comes up to spoil it all. But this is a homeschooling blog and every so often it's good to give people an idea of what our day looks like so here goes.
I get up and check email. I'm working towards getting up with the husband to make his breakfast and lunch (else he doesn't eat right and comes home irritable and ravenous) but I'm not there yet so email it is. I then make breakfast for the kids and call them out. When we're done that we all do a few odd jobs to tidy up and then the schooly stuff begins.
Catherine practices her violins first thing. Part of that is actual playing but now she's also working through an ear training book and doing a music theory workbook. All stuff her teacher expects of her and all stuff she's generally glad to do. While she practices Harry and I work through a few pages of Math Mammoth Addition. Sometimes we do drills on the Nintendo DSs, sometimes orally, less often he writes out the answers. After that we move on to How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I think I mentioned before how, due to some issues I realized Harry has with pronouncing and even hearing certain sounds so we've gone right back to the beginning regarding phonics. 100 Easy Lessons is heavily scripted, repetitive and seemingly very boring but Harry enjoys it and he's making good progress.
Generally Catherine is still playing when Harry and I are done math and reading so we whip out one of the children's poetry anthologies and read several poems. Usually he has a favourite and we also spend a little time on memorizing it. It sounds old fashioned but helps in a few ways. Harry gets a means to put on a performance for any appreciative relative which is something he enjoys and we have another chance to work on his grammar and pronunciation.
After that Harry runs off and plays for a bit. Catherine moves on to either Math Mammoth Geometry or review sheets on multiplication, division and operations with fractions and/or decimals. When she's finished there then she's got KISS Grammar.
By this time it's lunch so we eat. After that some more tidying. That's generally the end of anything formal. Things like read-alouds, outings, crafts, experiments, etc. happen anytime after that but not every day.
And that's pretty much it.
I get up and check email. I'm working towards getting up with the husband to make his breakfast and lunch (else he doesn't eat right and comes home irritable and ravenous) but I'm not there yet so email it is. I then make breakfast for the kids and call them out. When we're done that we all do a few odd jobs to tidy up and then the schooly stuff begins.
Catherine practices her violins first thing. Part of that is actual playing but now she's also working through an ear training book and doing a music theory workbook. All stuff her teacher expects of her and all stuff she's generally glad to do. While she practices Harry and I work through a few pages of Math Mammoth Addition. Sometimes we do drills on the Nintendo DSs, sometimes orally, less often he writes out the answers. After that we move on to How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I think I mentioned before how, due to some issues I realized Harry has with pronouncing and even hearing certain sounds so we've gone right back to the beginning regarding phonics. 100 Easy Lessons is heavily scripted, repetitive and seemingly very boring but Harry enjoys it and he's making good progress.
Generally Catherine is still playing when Harry and I are done math and reading so we whip out one of the children's poetry anthologies and read several poems. Usually he has a favourite and we also spend a little time on memorizing it. It sounds old fashioned but helps in a few ways. Harry gets a means to put on a performance for any appreciative relative which is something he enjoys and we have another chance to work on his grammar and pronunciation.
After that Harry runs off and plays for a bit. Catherine moves on to either Math Mammoth Geometry or review sheets on multiplication, division and operations with fractions and/or decimals. When she's finished there then she's got KISS Grammar.
By this time it's lunch so we eat. After that some more tidying. That's generally the end of anything formal. Things like read-alouds, outings, crafts, experiments, etc. happen anytime after that but not every day.
And that's pretty much it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)