Okay, so I’ve said over and over and over that this is the year Maddie conquers the math mountain. The school she will be attending two days per week is going to help in that it’s not just going to be me telling her that math is indeed important. They gave us a couple of math assessments for the girls to fill out to help place them in the appropriate level of math, which is a relief because she’s not ready for 3rd grade math. In addition to this new program, I’m going to be continuing what we’ve been doing at home to try to help in the mastery department.
So yesterday was the day. Craig had the three younger girls at a Cardinals game, and I took Maddie to Starbucks where we spent an hour drinking our beverages of choice and doing the math sheets. It was wonderful. I think I’ve hit on what it is for her – she needed a change of scenery, some non-threatening one/one time, and an Odwalla orange juice smoothie. She needed a mom who was chilling out to some soft music and a cafe mocha with nothing driving her to complete it as fast as possible in order to move on to the next thing. We were relaxed, we had no schedule, and the math was completed with no problems. This doesn’t mean that she understood it all, but she didn’t freak out over what she didn’t understand either, perhaps because she knew I wasn’t going to freak out as well.
I don’t think we can go to Starbucks every day to do math together, but I have some better ideas of how to motivate her in this department now. Suddenly math isn’t looking nearly as terrifying as it once did. I think we can do this.
Half-Pint House 
i might could do math in that setting!
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i might could do math in that setting!
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don’t you think it helps to know that it isn’t all on you too? you can be “good cop” and occasionally take her out for the fun times in math and someone else can be “bad cop” and do the hard stuff with her. they may actually know and love math more than you and pass on a love of math to her where your love of reading (extremely valuable!) is certainly something you are passing to your kids.
all our daughters were fortunate to have a teacher in elementary either full or p/t who LOVED math (a weak area for me) and put it in very concrete terms and made it fun! i’m very grateful for that. they all did very well in math thro’ school b/c of that foundation. m
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EEEEEEWWWWW … math!
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I’m with chickadee! I think I’d enjoy math a lot more at Starbucks, too!
Seriously, a change in location and one-on-one time can be just the thing to change an attitude or motivate. Thanks for that reminder. I need to do some of that with my children every now and then. And it won’t just happen if I don’t PLAN it!
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I really wish PBS still ran Square One. Talk about math made fun!
There are other options, too, like baking something to get the hang of fractions. Practical application has always helped me; if I can’t understand why I need to know a concept, especially when it involves tricky math (who derives the Schroedinger equation from scratch anymore?!), then I won’t care enough for the information to stick. But yes, doing fun stuff with the subject, even if that just means changing the setting, makes a world of difference.
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don’t you think it helps to know that it isn’t all on you too? you can be “good cop” and occasionally take her out for the fun times in math and someone else can be “bad cop” and do the hard stuff with her. they may actually know and love math more than you and pass on a love of math to her where your love of reading (extremely valuable!) is certainly something you are passing to your kids.
all our daughters were fortunate to have a teacher in elementary either full or p/t who LOVED math (a weak area for me) and put it in very concrete terms and made it fun! i’m very grateful for that. they all did very well in math thro’ school b/c of that foundation. m
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EEEEEEWWWWW … math!
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I’m with chickadee! I think I’d enjoy math a lot more at Starbucks, too!
Seriously, a change in location and one-on-one time can be just the thing to change an attitude or motivate. Thanks for that reminder. I need to do some of that with my children every now and then. And it won’t just happen if I don’t PLAN it!
LikeLike
I really wish PBS still ran Square One. Talk about math made fun!
There are other options, too, like baking something to get the hang of fractions. Practical application has always helped me; if I can’t understand why I need to know a concept, especially when it involves tricky math (who derives the Schroedinger equation from scratch anymore?!), then I won’t care enough for the information to stick. But yes, doing fun stuff with the subject, even if that just means changing the setting, makes a world of difference.
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Love those moments!!!
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Love those moments!!!
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