Math Update

Twice in the past (at least) I have bemoaned dd7's not having learned her addition facts. I'm happy to say that she has learned them. They are all firmly in her head now. Hurrah! Although sometimes the recall speed could be faster, I think she is mostly just bored by strings of subtraction and addition problems. No computer game has been able to make practicing math facts fun for her, so nothing in that line of tools has worked to increase her speed, which is unfortunate, as I think that her boredom would be much less if she could quickly calculate multi-digit sums. We're plugging on ahead in her math book, covering beginning multiplication (she likes singing skip-counting songs, so this has been easy so far) and easy fractions, while doing short reviews of other concepts, including addition and subtraction, as the text dictates.

Dd5 and I haven't done much formal schoolwork in the past 6 weeks because I'm dealing with postpartum fatigue (love you, new baby, even if I've been up for over an hour in the dark and it's now past 5 a.m.!) and she isn't officially in kindergarten until next fall. But when we do pull out her math book, a kindergarten-level worktext from Bob Jones University, she does well at it. She gets the answers right but often writes the numbers backward; I find it cute that when I point out where she has written a "3" backward, she'll draw a correctly-facing "3" right next to the incorrect one and announce that it's a butterfly!

One month

Baby is one month old now. She wakes up 3-4 times per night, but I'm getting enough sleep to function properly most days. I do find I often crave carbohydrates for fast energy, though, which is a signal that I'm really not getting enough rest. I'm thankful my husband has been been helping out so much. He's been back at work full-time for almost 2 weeks now, and I'm so grateful he was able to take the time off that he did.

I've nearly gotten back to a normal homeschool schedule with dd7, which is necessary for her. If she spends too many days in a row without doing schoolwork with me, she starts acting up in unpleasant ways because of boredom and lack of stimulation. And that is with part-time school attendance and a house full of library media, books, craft supplies, toys and games, and the computer (with Netflix!). I can tell that unschooling would not work for this child. Lots of time to work on her own interests and projects--yes, absolutely. But never requiring her to sit down and spend some time on parent-chosen subjects in an organized fashion--no way!