xyAlgebra

For the last few months, I've been tutoring a smart--but very behind in math--teenage boy with ADHD. By the end of his geometry class, he was fairly confidently using the formulas he'd been learning and had improved a lot in his testing. Then the second semester came, and his class began precalculus. Thus far, it's been all algebra (albeit at a precalculus level), and he is abysmal at algebra.

Thanks to ADHD and being promoted in math for years without really being forced to get his algebra (or even sometimes arithmetic) foundations solid, he's been like a person forced to do a triathlon who still just doggy-paddles. Yes, sometimes he gets through the water, but it's only with incredible effort, and sometimes, despite lots of effort, he just goes under.

Until I proved to him a few months ago why two negatives make a positive, he didn't believe it and certainly didn't apply it correctly. Yet he is supposed to be doing long division of polynomials. Sigh. At least his multiplication facts are solid; otherwise, I'd despair. He mastered those through the video game Timez Attack.

Now that school is almost out, I've got him working independently on algebra basics for the next month. I found several algebra programs online that looked promising--interesting videos and visuals, interactive problem sets, etc.--and tested them on him one afternoon. Without fail, he spaced out during all the videos. The only program that forced him to pay attention and learn something is a free, downloadable one called "xyAlgebra." It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is a great program. A retired professor created it and gives it away for free. While one needs a computer to use it, one doesn't need the internet, which means no YouTube/FB/email distractions for the user. Very good for kids with attention issues! It gets good reviews from others who've tried it, and I found myself "trying it out" for nearly 2 hours the night I downloaded it. It's a solid, engaging (because it goes nowhere till you hit the right buttons, and the "right buttons" change) program.

Yesterday, I had the tutee start working on it at my house to make sure that he didn't have any problems with it. I let him listen to music of his choice while he worked, and he made it through the first 20 lessons (out of 375 total) in an hour. I have high hopes that this will be the tool that helps him finally lay down a solid foundation in algebra. He's supposed to do 20 lessons a day, so we'll see where he is in a month. And if the learning sticks.

Reciprocals

Dd10 is about halfway through her fifth grade math book. She has been learning to multiply and divide fractions. As she started her math lesson today, she asked, "What's a reprotocal?"

"Oh, a reciprocal!" I said excitedly. "Let me show you."

I put her in a standing position directly in front of me saying, "Stand up straight. You're a fraction."

Then I had her lie down on the floor and grabbed her feet firmly. Next I started to lift her into an upside-down position. She's still a foot shorter than me, so I mostly succeeded. Then I said, "Now you're a reciprocal!" She and I shared a good laugh.

Sometimes I really, really love homeschooling.

To aerate or not to aerate

We have lived in our current home for three winters. Now it's spring, and it's time to take care of the grass. Last summer, we finally got our sprinklers operational, so now we have lots of grass. And for some reason, the yard in front and back is bumpy. Apparently, the partial solution to that problem is to aerate our lawn, i.e., pull out plugs of dirt that look like very large goose turds and let them break down on the lawn.

My husband doesn't think aeration will do much good. He was pulling up webpages about "hydroseeding" last night. It involves spraying a slurry of fertilizer and seed onto bare ground to get an even cover of grass. It sounds expensive.

I figure aeration can't do much harm. I'll spend $30 on a manual plug aerator and give myself a few blisters using it to treat the really bumpy areas of our yard. Here's hoping it evens out the lawn a bit!

Happy Mother's Day!

Love it, hate it, tomorrow is still a good day to remember that no matter how problematic our family relationships might sometimes be, we owe our lives to our mothers. If my mom knew of this blog's existence, I'd wish her a happy Mother's Day in this post. Instead, I'll just call her after church and talk for a while. I think she'd prefer that anyhow.

Speaking of church, my eight-year-old daughter might be giving a talk in Primary (the LDS children's organization) tomorrow. I was informed of that possibility 2 hours ago, so I quickly drafted a talk for her. The given theme is "Jesus Christ went about doing good." Here's the talk:

Why do we talk so much about following Jesus Christ? Because he saved us from death and from sin, and he showed us the way to live!
How did Jesus live?
He did what Heavenly Father wanted and didn’t break any commandments.
He taught people what to do so that they could become like him.
He healed sick people.
He was kind to people who were being bullied.
He was friendly to everyone.
He gave everyone the gift of resurrection.
He suffered for our sins so that we can repent and live with Him and Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom.
He was nice to his mother—which is worth pointing out on Mother’s Day!
Jesus was the best person who ever lived on the Earth.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Happy Mother's Day to all women who mother!