Today was back to school day for the Brohlin household. It was a long winter break, but we decided to follow the CPS schedule to make it easier for the kids to have playdates, and (what the heck) it was nice for me too. A nice, long two week vacation. I stayed in bed a lot.
Back to work.
Caleb is learning subtraction--we began a new chapter today, one that deals with "subtraction of larger numbers with regrouping." Really? I can only assume that the term "borrowing" was too misleading. I always thought we weren't really borrowing for heaven's sake; It wasn't like we returned the numbers after awhile. Thank the Lord we now have "subtraction of larger numbers with regrouping." That's not difficult for a seven year old to grasp at all. Soooooooo......
I'll tell you what Sue would do. I called it borrowing.
Hannah is learning about adding fractions with different denominators. She is thrilled (and I am sarcastic.) I think that she'll like math better next week better when we apply it to electrical circuits. Why electrical circuits when she is much more interested in astronomy? Because the numbers relating to electrical currents are easier to deal with than the numbers relating to celestial orbits. Duh.
I think I miss Mom the most when I'm trying to figure out ways to teach math. I always figured that she would be there to help me and give me feedback and advice. I don't know if she would like how I'm teaching...I'm not normally this insecure, but I can't help myself. I didn't 'get' math until I was older. I remember exactly when I understood. I was in Science of Electronics class that I was taking for fun (and to learn to wire microphones--I am married to a musician after all),when it hit me: "This is what they meant when they told me that I would use this algebra crap someday." It all fell into place at that point, and I learned to love math. I love the complexity, the sense, the fact that there are RIGHT ANSWERS! There are so few absolutes in the world, that I appreciated the order of math for the first time.
I don't want my kids to have to wait until they're older to understand this stuff. If they choose to be poets, good for them! But I don't want them to choose poetry because they couldn't handle the math in their science classes. I want them to choose poetry to be because they really love poetry (and ramen noodles--they won't be able to eat anything else), and the math is great to know for balancing what isn't in their checkbooks.
I was thirty years old when I took that electronics class that opened my eyes. Thirty! As Caleb informed me the other day, "If you live to be a hundred, that's almost a third of your life!" (...and someday he will know how to borrow as well.)
Back to work.
Caleb is learning subtraction--we began a new chapter today, one that deals with "subtraction of larger numbers with regrouping." Really? I can only assume that the term "borrowing" was too misleading. I always thought we weren't really borrowing for heaven's sake; It wasn't like we returned the numbers after awhile. Thank the Lord we now have "subtraction of larger numbers with regrouping." That's not difficult for a seven year old to grasp at all. Soooooooo......
I'll tell you what Sue would do. I called it borrowing.
Hannah is learning about adding fractions with different denominators. She is thrilled (and I am sarcastic.) I think that she'll like math better next week better when we apply it to electrical circuits. Why electrical circuits when she is much more interested in astronomy? Because the numbers relating to electrical currents are easier to deal with than the numbers relating to celestial orbits. Duh.
I think I miss Mom the most when I'm trying to figure out ways to teach math. I always figured that she would be there to help me and give me feedback and advice. I don't know if she would like how I'm teaching...I'm not normally this insecure, but I can't help myself. I didn't 'get' math until I was older. I remember exactly when I understood. I was in Science of Electronics class that I was taking for fun (and to learn to wire microphones--I am married to a musician after all),when it hit me: "This is what they meant when they told me that I would use this algebra crap someday." It all fell into place at that point, and I learned to love math. I love the complexity, the sense, the fact that there are RIGHT ANSWERS! There are so few absolutes in the world, that I appreciated the order of math for the first time.
I don't want my kids to have to wait until they're older to understand this stuff. If they choose to be poets, good for them! But I don't want them to choose poetry because they couldn't handle the math in their science classes. I want them to choose poetry to be because they really love poetry (and ramen noodles--they won't be able to eat anything else), and the math is great to know for balancing what isn't in their checkbooks.
I was thirty years old when I took that electronics class that opened my eyes. Thirty! As Caleb informed me the other day, "If you live to be a hundred, that's almost a third of your life!" (...and someday he will know how to borrow as well.)
I know that this looks like 2 posts in one day, but it's not. The other was stuck on my phone (yes, I can blog on my phone--what will these young whipper-snappers think of next?)
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