Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Math Conquered+ A Field Trip

We had a really good day today.  We got past a few tough milestones in school--Lindsay finished her first math book which is is a real celebration!  Math is not one of her strengths but she proved that with a little perseverance she can do it.  She was really proud of herself today and really, she has every right to be.  This is one highlight of homeschooling.  You've struggled and wrestled with the material right along with them day in and day out.  You've dried tears, encouraged, pushed them, taught and retaught concepts.  As a result, the celebration is really for both of you.  You're just as happy in their 'victory' as they are.  You TOTALLY understand what it took for them to get to that point.  Now she only has 1 book left to go.

On the same note, Eric, who IS my math whiz, had stumbled pretty hard on long division.  I think for him part of the struggle came in that he feels that ALL Math should be easy for him.  And long division was not.  Well today a light clicked in his brain and he totally mastered every long division question that was hurled at him.  He felt pretty good about himself, and once again, after seeing him struggle with it and working the problems over and over with him, day after day, I was pretty excited too.  We say he has officially conquered long division.

The books were shut by 11:30, and after lunch we got in the van and headed to the Space and Science Center.  Courtney hung out with grandpa and grandma and we took the kids through the Star* Wars Identities exhibition.  The kids LOVED it!  Included with all that, we bought a year's family pass to the center so that we could come back and take advantage of the facility in the near future.  On my next post I will add a few pictures of our day.

After picking up Courtney (who by the way LOVES hanging out at her grandparents' place) we took them all out for supper at Red Robins*.  The kids were great.  They thought it was such a treat!  Just before we were leaving, another family of 4 sat beside us.  I noticed the man and woman talking.  then the man stood up and very obviously counted our kids.  He actually used his finger to 'count them all up'.  Then he sat down again and told his wife, "There's five of them!"  I wasn't offended, but I was a little proud.  "Yup, 5," I was thinking.  "And they're pretty awesome kids too."

At home, we chilled.  Courtney went to bed and the rest of us soaked in the hot tub.  Seth and Paul went to bed thereafter and I read to the older kids.  Yup, a pretty good day.

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