You know that moment?  That one single second when your child gets so animated about something and you just know that the excitement he is feeling that very second is the best feeling of the world?  As I parent I love to see that animation and excitement, knowing that as they grow they happen less and less.  My husband and I are always in awe of watching our children at those times where we plan and the boys just “let it go” and we surprise them with something.  It does not happen very often because both boys are “need to know” children and it is sometimes easier to tell them what is going on than deal with the constant questions over and over……

The Boys God Father gave them a stack of little books called “Pocket Classics”.  He read them as a young boy and it helped open the door to the truly great classics in reading.  My boys have been burning through them as most of them are around 70-100 pages and have pictures as well as an abbreviated story.

Quentin just had that animated moment and it had nothing to do with a video game, a field trip, a new toy or game…  It had to do with the lesson that he was doing!  I wish that I had gotten the moment on film.  It went something like this:

“MOM!!!  Oh my Gosh!!! ” (today of all days..being Halloween, he turned in his chair and about fell on the floor…) He proceeded to read to me about what happened in 1938 when Orson Welles read about the Alien invasion.  Then he said… “Mom!  it was out of the book War of the Worlds!  I read that!!!”  Arms flinging, smile from ear to ear, READING everything on the page!

Ok, two points here….  No more than 9 months ago we were giving up everything to get him reading the way he should.  The only word that he pronounced incorrectly on the whole lesson was “Hoax”  which I corrected and he then read correctly.  Second point was that he actually was excited about school work.  (of course it helps that the lesson was on aliens and something he had read but still)

Seriously, Never did I think that we would have this in schoolwork.  How could I describe my household to make you understand how much different our world is now than last June when we were trying our best to get through a page at a time of boring, mundane school work.  No matter what I did to make it interesting and exciting we were all stressed out and not having fun.  The conversations now flow easy and are fun!  The world has opened up to us and learning is now so easy!

As for the Odd part?  How odd that the lesson of that Orson Welles book fell today????  Spooky…..

Well the stomach bug has been visiting my house this week…gotta love that !!! But through all of the sickness we still managed to log on and complete our lessons.  My third grader has been pretty behind in math in several areas, and I have been struggling with finding the right curriculum for her.  She does great on several topics but still counts on her fingers all the time and has trouble with place value.  She has been doing the second grade math as a review but a week or so ago began the third grade section.  T4L has been such a blessing. ( she is the one that announced in the bathroom about the lines of symmetry)  All week last week she was running around announcing that she “got them all right…I got 100″  This has been such a big boost to her.  She still needs work with addition and subtraction facts but I found these video’s …my 7th grader says they are “lame” called Can Do Kids, they are this family of kids doing exercises to the math facts.  There is one for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.   Hey…Math and PE too, you can not beat that.  I think that we will use those several times a week for practice….  My only question is why they have to wait to do the sit ups until the 12 fact family, when you are already tired ???  The kids got a big kick out of Old mom trying to do sit ups….
 

Today I found it amazing that there was such an amazing difference in my two kids.  Grasping math concepts has always come so easy to my oldest son.  Q would fly through math and never blink. He could tackle anything we threw at him.  While still in pre-school he was adding double digits and we were told that he was surpassing all the other kids and would have trouble if we put him in public school.   I always wished that his reading was as advanced but in time he became more comfortable with it.  Our youngest son flew through reading, loves English and struggles every day with any type of Math concepts…. Until today..

This morning he learned “rounding”.  I did not realize that he was even doing it until he got stuck and called me over.  I let them get started and then “check-in” after they get settled.  When I went over to Z’s desk to help him I was surprised he was doing “rounding” and my first thought was to have him move on to something else until their dad came home.  Their father spent two weeks helping Q understanding rounding up and down and I am not even sure that he totally has grasp it.

I asked Z which way the problem was to be rounded and he gave me the answer without even thinking about it.  I looked at him in amazement.  This son of mine who struggles so with math could figure out how to round and understood the concept easily.  The rounding was not the problem, it was the actual subtraction and addition after he rounded.

I wish I knew what the difference with that single part of math that his brain understands so easily and why he can’t add 5+6 without a struggle……  Where one boy can add multiple numbers in his head on the fly but can’t round a number to save his life, the other boy can round any number thrown at him but can’t seem to add a single number in his head….  Weird…..

(here is my “slouchy” son  the way he enjoys doing his work until I say “Sit up and pay attention!”)

Hello all….  First I want to thank you all of the Math post ideas.  And…

As you all know we are new to homeschooling so naturally I am doubting myself .  Tonight I was taking a bath….( without the toddler…a rare luxury) and reading The Well-Trained mind.  I was looking at all of the things that I needed to cover, and frankly getting a bit depressed and worried that I was not doing enough.  When in barged my 3rd grade daughter and announced that the squares in the tiles on the floor have 4 possible lines of symmetry.  She then went on to talk about how many a circle, triangle and rectangle have.  I asked her where she learned that ( I knew the answer) and she said…Time 4 Learning of course!!  The Lord works in mysterious ways to encourage us…..he uses a small child…and time4learning!  

Zach was having a 6 year old moment today. He did not want to read his science. I enjoy it when they find common ground and get along for the few minutes of whatever they are doing. Loud or quiet, it is fun to see them do things together with a common goal. Unfortunately, most of Zach’s science lesson was with lots giggles and seating struggles but they eventually got through it… At one point I said “Could you boys please just get through it???” Q turned to me and said (in his 9 year old animated way) “We are on 6 of 7, do you THINK I WILL SURVIVE???”