muffins and math

I did something weird today. I made muffins for breakfast today. To make things even weirder, I made regular, full sized muffins instead of mini-muffins. Both girls were crowding so close around the bowl that I could barely squeeze in to mix and pour. Fine, if the girls are going to shove so close, I'm going to throw some math in.

Me: "Sparkle, how much is two times six?"
Sparkle: "Twelve."
This was easy for her as her math program introduced simple multiplication to her months ago.
Me: "Without counting, can you tell me how many muffins there are?"
Sparkle: "Twelve."
Sounds good, but I am suspicious.
Me: "How did you know?"
Sparkle: "Because that's the answer to the math problem you just said."
Arg.
Me: "What does the math problem have to do with the muffins?"
Sparkle: "I don't know."
Really? How can you stand there and see the muffins and not get it?
Me: "So how do you know that there are twelve muffins?"
Sparkle: "I just know that there are twelve. That's what two times six is."
Me: "So what does two times six have to do with the number of muffins?"
Sparkle: "I don't know. Fine, there aren't twelve muffins."
Sigh. Retracting her answer is easier for her than explaining it.
Me: "I'm not saying that there aren't twelve muffins. In fact you're right, there are twelve muffins. But how does two times six relate to the number of muffins, as opposed to say 10 + 2?"
Sparkle: "Ten plus two is twelve. There are twelve muffins."
Me: "Ten plus two means there's a group of ten objects and a group of two objects and you put the groups together."
Sparkle: "Yeah."
Me: "Do you see a group of ten muffins and a group of two muffins?"
Sparkle: "No."
Me: "So, ten plus two is not a useful representation of number of muffins. But two times six is. Do you know why?"
Sparkle: "No, I don't know."
... and on and on. Arg.

The conversation goes nowhere. I go finish my morning routine and shoe the girls off to do theirs while the muffins bake. After we are done and the oven beeps, I take the muffins out of the oven.

Me: "Sparkle, look, how many muffins are in this tray?"
Sparkle: "Six."
Me: "How many muffins are in the other tray?"
Sparkle: "Six."
Me: "How many trays of six muffins are there?"
Sparkle: "Two"
Me: "So there are two sets of six muffins. Two groups of six muffins is two times six. That's what multiplication is."
Sparkle: "Oh! I get it. Ask me again."
I pretend that we haven't had this aggravating conversation.
Me: "Sparkle, what does two times six have to do with the number of muffins?"
Sparkle: "There are six muffins in this tray and six in that tray. That's two sets of six. Two times six is twelve."

Ah. Finally. The poor girl can do the arithmetic and is starting to memorize her math facts, but she still doesn't really get it.

Sorry I don't have a picture of the muffins. We ate them for breakfast. They were oatmeal raison muffins. Sparkle and I each ate three muffins. Glitter ate two. How many muffins were left to snack on later in the day?

Language Arts Fun

I used to think that I'd eventually stop curriculum hopping. I thought that once I figured out my teaching style and the girls' learning styles, and what programs are out there, I'd find a match and no longer feel the urge to hop.

However, that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon. Although I'm very happy with my current language arts choices, and Sparkle can write decently for her age, I still feel that there is something missing and I'm not sure how to bridge the gap to the next level. I've stumbled across some books that seem to fit that gap, but I'm not quite ready to take the monetary plunge yet.

pool time

It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago both girls were so timid in the pool that they both insisted on full flotation and would still cling to either Wander or me. I put them in swim lessons for two months last year and it really paid off. By the end of the summer the girls were happily playing in the water with Wander and I just supervising.

I was concerned that the girls would loose their familiarity with the water over the long break. I shouldn't have worried. We've been going to the pool most evenings after supper and the girls have turned back into little mermaids. Sparkle was immediately back in her element, as she can comfortably stand up in the shallow end. Glitter took a bit longer to regain her confidence in the water, but this afternoon she was actually shooing me away further before she would swim to me. Glitter has completely stopped wearing her floaties, which makes me a bit nervous, but she is pretty good at knowing her limits in the water.

The girls have minimal water survival skills, but not much technique in the water. Sparkle can jump into the water, turn around, and swim back to the wall completely unassisted. Glitter needs only a tiny bit of help getting oriented back towards the wall. Sparkle swims only as far as she can hold her breath. Glitter can come up for air, but she has trouble propelling herself through the water once she's lost the momentum from her initial push.

I'm building my swimming ability right along with the girls. I never learned to swim as a kid, beyond a rudimentary knowledge of the basic strokes. However, this evening I managed to swim the length of the pool (I usually work the width of the pool). I got tired about halfway back and had to cling to the wall.

We're also doing some biking along with swimming. Sparkle and I ride the tandem to the pool, while Wander pulls Glitter on the half-bike. I like to think that we make a happy picture with the four of us on two bikes going to and coming from the pool.

blueberries

We went blueberry picking with a couple other families this morning. We now have a big bag of blueberries in the fridge.




Tips to remember for next time:

- It gets HOT! Get there as early as possible, between 7-8am if possible. When we arrived at about 8:15, it wasn't too hot. There were people who were already leaving with full buckets. However, it quickly got hot in the sun. Ponytails for me and the girls helped, and I ought to start wearing a hat. We also brought and emptied three big water bottles. I clipped the water bottles to the buckets when the girls weren't carrying them.

- Bring cash. You can pay for the berries with cash or a check. However, the sno-cone place only accepts cash. Neither place accepts a credit card.

- Go with friends. Sparkle was tired as soon as we got to the blueberry bushes. However, when a girl friend her age showed up, she perked right up again.

- Let the kids eat as much as they want and don't give them any quotas to fill.

- Sing! I heard another family singing as they picked. It built a feeling of togetherness and they could hear where each other were. My kids wandered out of eyesight; it's almost impossible to not do so. However, they were still within earshot, but we didn't converse much. Once Sparkle wandered a bit too far for her comfort and got scared. Fortunately another mom in our group saw her before she freaked out. (She was really close, but it's hard to see through the rows of bushes. If she had hollered, I would have heard her.)

Girly Books / Fantasy Books

I love a good girly book. My taste in books hasn't changed much since 6th grade. However, in the last few years, I've discovered and re-discovered a few authors and books that I really like, but weren't around when I was a kid.

I heard of Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine long before I ever read it. Then, one day I checked it out of the library and fell in love with this fantasy Cinderella story. Another trip to the library brought home Fairest, a Snow White story transformed and filled out in a similar way. She also wrote a few novels for Disney's Fairies series, which are more Sparkle's taste.

I first discovered Diane Stanley through her picture book biographies. Even though these books are true picture books with gorgeous illustrations, the text is geared more for readers who have typically outgrown picture books. Then I discovered Bella at Midnight, another Cinderella story with a twist.

I rediscovered E. Nesbit thanks to a copy of The Enchanted Castle at the library. Then I found that her books are now in the public domain and my Kindle now holds copies of many of her books that I'd never heard of before. Her tales are full of magic, delight, and humor. Librivox even has a few recordings of her works, making it easy to share her works with the kids and to learn how to pronounce some of the words.

I read a bit of Edward Eager when I was a kid, but not all. His references to E. Nesbit made me look him up again.

I hardly ever buy novels anymore because they take up shelf space and are so easy to get at the library. However, I might make an exception for these books if I find them cheap.

Oh, and then there's the Betsy-Tacy books that I found. But they aren't fantasy books so I guess they don't belong in this post.

potato

At the end of every reading lesson with Glitter, she picks a book and I read it to her. Sometimes when I'm reading and get to a word that I think she might recognize or be able to sound out, I'll replace it with a silly word. The silly word checks to see if she is paying attention, and it also gives her a chance to look at the word and tell me what it really is. After several books, I got tired of making up new silly words and settled on "potato" as my stock silly word.

Then last Friday, Glitter was looking at the letters on our compost bucket and wondering what they said. Now, our compost bucket is just a large, old potato salad plastic container. I looked at the word and started to laugh. I told Glitter, you're not going to believe this, but it says "potato." She was instantly suspicious and told me not to be silly. What did it really say.

Me: "You might not believe this, but it says 'potato'."
Glitter: "No! What does it really say."
Me: "It really says 'potato'. Do you believe me?"
Glitter: "I don't believe you."
Me: "See, 'p..o..t..a..t..o'. Potato."
Glitter pauses with a look of deep concentration. She's quite sure that the word isn't 'potato', but she can't figure out what else it might be.
Glitter: "Sissy, what does this say?"
Sparkle: "Will you believe me?"
Glitter: "Yes, I believe you."
Sparkle: "Will you really trust me?"
Glitter: "Yes, already."
Sparkle: "Okay, it says ... potato."
Glitter: "No! Really! What does it say!"
Sparkle: "I know it's hard for you to believe, but it really does say 'potato'."
Glitter pauses again and looks at the letters intently. She's not quite convinced but starting to believe.
After a few more rounds of us insisting that the word is 'potato', Glitter gives in.
Glitter: "Oh, fine. Alright."
Then she wanders off.

House cares

It's been eleven years since we had our house built. The appliances are starting to fall apart. We've had the dryer, dishwasher, and A/C all go out in the past month. We managed to get the dryer fixed, but the dishwasher wasn't worth saving, so we got a new dishwasher.

On the other hand, I shined my sink this weekend. I got the idea from the FlyLady web site. I emptied all the dishes out of the sink, scoured out the crud, and dried both sides. Although the rest of the house is a cluttered mess, I can look at my sink and the girls' room and know, at least for the moment, that these two places in the house are at peace.

freaky smile

This afternoon Sparkle accused me of having a freaky smile. She said that it was scaring her. Here is the "freaky" smile.


Sparkle wants me supposed to smile like this. Other than showing my teeth, I'm not sure what the difference is.

twiching toes

I first noticed it with Sparkle. When I'm teaching her something a little bit tough, her toes start to twitch. It's one of the signs I use to tell me to go slowly.

Recently I found out that Glitter does the same thing. She twitches her toes when she thinks something is too tough.

I don't think that either kid is aware of the toe twitching. I would have never know if we weren't barefoot homeschoolers.

Driving Home

There's nothing quite like driving through an unfamiliar city at an insane speed, navigating a maze of lane changes with giant trucks breathing down your neck. To make matters worse, we were on day three of our road trip home, only the yucky snacks remained, and all the toys were now boring or broken. Scary traffic + cranky kids + almost two weeks away from home - another adult = one stressed out Homebody.

Two months ago, Wander and I were trying to decide whether to fly or drive to his parents' home for our summer vacation. He didn't have enough vacation days to drive himself. However, tickets for four plus a rental car were out of the budget. I came up with the brilliant and insane option of having me (the Homebody who hates driving) drive the girls and myself the 1200 miles and back, while Wander flew alone.

The trip had gone well and Wander was already back home and back to work. All that remained between me and blessed normal routines was 200 miles of freeway, including Dallas, where I have gotten lost or turned around every time I've driven in it.

In an effort to keep us all alive long enough to see home again I gripped the steering wheel tighter and barked at the kids: "Be quiet back there and keep your hands to yourself! If you want to say anything at all, you can pray!" It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it had worked earlier when driving through other cities at rush hour. Sparkle has her traditional prayers memorized and the soothing sound of her young voice praying helped calm my nerves. Glitter joined in where she could. Then Sparkle felt that she had prayed enough and I could hear Glitter continue with her usual vocal wanderings to God, as only a four year old can: "... and Dear God please help Mommy stay safe and drive good and not have an accident and if she gets in an accident and dies please take care of sissy and me ..." Um not the most comforting thing to hear.

Nevertheless, we made it safely home and rejoiced at the familiar surroundings. All three of us ran around greeting each room and piece of furniture, hugging familiar pillows and kitchen appliances. Five minutes later both girls were in dress-up building a play-castle. Ten minutes Wander came home from work and the hugs began anew.