CTC First Day

Yet again it's August and the heat is on! We have heat advisories for the next few days, 106 in the shade!  My box day (HODies way of saying my books are here!) was last week and the living room is finished, painted and re-shelved. I have shelves of books for school in there now. Yippie! I'm going back to schooling around the kitchen table.

If the clutter gets out of control we'll go back to schooling in the kids bedroom. As it is, I love how I have homes for all the books. Mise en place works for school as well as the kitchen :-)

Little Miss Sunshine and Sweet Potato are able to share a curriculum this year. I love how I can combine them, they are very much in the same place in math, science, history, and reading.  Sad for Sweet potato that she is not progressing as rapidly as her sister but she is progressing! Little Miss Sunshine thinks math is fun and interesting.  While I wonder what is wrong with her I do rejoice that she likes math... 

I've chosen the history read aloud's as Sweet Potatoes extensions to push this curriculum in to "6th" grade for her.  Last year Sweet Potato did just the history and the quiet time from CTC, along with piles of Nuro-therapy work.  I do not recommend this path of repetition for an average student.  Since my eldest is in no way average and I know she needs input, input, input, and she likes Romans and Greeks. I feel this is a good call for her as an individual. 

As we were working through some math (review) on how to say big numbers, I was yet again reminded of my childhood. Ever have flashbacks to events when you were a kid? It was just like being back in my 3rd grade class room. Terrified of Mrs. Beecher the creature and that I had to say 10,506 in front of everybody. I failed miserably, Instead of saying ten thousand five hundred and six I gabbled out ten, five, six.  Zeros were a mystery to me.  It's as if they have some mystical power. Really how can you have 5 divide it by nothing and end up with nothing... what happened to the 5????  

It was hard to watch her struggle while her sister (who totally grasps how zeros work) just flies through the assignment. Sweet Potato says 5006 is 500 and 6.  I had to take her back to the number street. By the way teaching the number street from Math U See was like opening a window for me into the darkness that was place value... Once we revisited The number street she would give me the wrong answer then go "nooooooo" and say it right. I could see her tongue wiggling to force out the correct answer, while not saying the wrong one. I finally talked to her about letting it process.  "You need a bit more time. Take a deep breath and then think, Then take another deep breath, then answer."  All that deep breathing helps oxygenate her brain too :-) Bingo! she started getting them right. I jumped up and down and hooted and hollered for each one she got right. Big fist bumps and all that jazz. She started to blossom and smile doing MATH!  I love to see that, even tho I feel like a complete faker making a big deal out of accurate place value. Then I think "oh wait you were how old when you understood it???  um 37."  Yes this is hard!  Oooo and I'm supposed to be working on being more approachable, so humble thyself and be goofy.

We took two days to do Unit1 Day 1, I'm fine with taking extra time. Getting back into the swing of things is always difficult. As I see it any "one day" we get done in the heat. Is a day off we can have during the great fall weather of November.