Late Night Penny Math

L could not sleep tonight. Perhaps it was a later-than-usual dinner. She ate a veggie burger, pasta salad ("it's even good cold" ... hmm, that should tell you something about last night's dinner), chips, carrots, and water. Then went swimming. Maybe all that just-before-bed excitement was too much. Whatever the cause, she kept getting up - asking for water, hugs, you name it. Eventually I asked her if she just wanted to hang out. There's nothing work than lying in bed awake.

So we talked and had some nice mommy, daddy, first child time without the whirling dervish (sound asleep after a wild and crazy day). I asked her if she wanted to do some math. We really hadn't done any during the day. We'd worked on a story, picking out words (word find with matching), and other language arts type activities. You would have thought I'd asked her if she wanted ice cream. SO I broke out the pennies.

We've been doing lots of math on paper. Mostly because she enjoys it and ideas aren't hard to come by. It's everything we did in school. Straight up arithmetic, patterns/ sequencing, greater than less than. But I haven't been so good with "manipulatives". I still remember the first time I heard the word "manipulatives". It sounded like such a made-up teacher word. Like, "I need a 5 syllable word for 'things you hold'" ... "ooh! 'MANIPULATIVES'". Anyway. Silly name. Good concept. And yet I never think about manipulatives (except when we're eating and end up doing "pretzel math" or "M&M math"... yum).

Tonight was penny math. We ventured into division (without calling it division), and Lindsay took right to it. It will probably be a long time before we divide on paper, but dividing pennies into equal groups was a fun start to what can be a challenging concept. I even gave her 5 pennies and said, "Divide these into 2 equal groups". She made 2 groups of 2 then quickly rejected the 5th. How nice that she didn't get stressed out by that extra penny. So we called it a "leftover" and said we'd better eat it in a day or two or it would go bad!

Can't wait to see what unfolds tomorrow!

Story Starters

Once up on a time there was a witch who ...

was mean. The she freaked every body out. THE END.

I once knew a

M: witch,
L: that went to the Arctic and scared polar bears.
M: And the witch ate her breakfast of piping porridge.
L: She didn't have any hat.
M: And she didn't have any eyes.
L: And she did have a face that didn't have any eyes.
L: She had purple hair.
M: And a note.
L: She ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She went to the Arctic and scared polar bears away. But the best thing she liked was getting to watch TV all day. THE END

Down in the village I saw a

L: donkey.
M: There was a princess named Belle.

(then a big fight ensued over a plate ... oy)
Mom: THE END!

Watercolors in the Rain

The kids spent the afternoon in the sprinkler. They ride their plasma cars or bikes in and out of the water. Michael soon tired of this - we've had the sprinkler out almost every day for the last 2 weeks. The temps have topped 100.

So, I broke out the side walk chalk. He drew a seashell in green, then decided to explore chalk in the water of the sprinkler. The effect was beautiful. The driveway is black asphalt and the water both blurred the chalk and deepened the color. It looked like Burt's drawing's in Mary Poppins.

As Michael started this project, it began to rain. We turned off the sprinkler. Lindsay left the ballet she was directing in the garage and joined him in the rain. They covered the side walk in pink, green, blue, and yellow water.

After sidewalk chalk we came inside and were cleaning up. Lindsay panicked. "Mom! We haven't done any homeschooling today!" I tried to explain that she'd been learning all day -- hiking, playing the "listening and looking game", on our nature scavenger hunt, reading books in the car, reading books in the house, singing with her Sandra Boyton CD, making lunch together, reading about dingoes then pretending to be dingoes, reading about wild cats of North America, practicing bike riding without the training wheels. These were all enriching activities. She was unconvinced. I was thrilled. Not that she wanted to sit down and "homeschool" but that she had had a fabulous enriching day and didn't once feel like I was trying to "school" her! Success!

Still it was not surprising that she asked to do "patterns" a few minutes later. She loves figuring out and I'm sure it feels like homeschooling to her. The only problem? She's so good at it, I'm hard-pressed to create any that are challenging. We've done shapes, colors, numbers, equations. So I wrote the following:

1/2 , 2/4 , 3/6 , 4/8 , 5/10 ...

She paused for all of 2 seconds before writing 6/12. Now, at 5, I don't think she understands what these fractions mean. We've talked about halves and fourths when cooking and when drawing circles, but I don't think she's aware of the divison symbol - except for seeing it on measuring cups. Still... to get the numerator and denominator and not to get flustered by the new arrangement of a number on top of another. I was excited! So, I decided to up the ante a bit:

1/3 , 2/6 , 3/9 ...

I had to leave the room to help Michael. When I came back, 4/12 was written in sequence. My mom was standing a few feet away. I asked if she helped her. Nope. How is this possible? We certainly haven't practiced counting by 3s. Much less within the context of a fraction. See why I'm at a loss on how to make this more difficult? She wanted to keep going, but I couldn't think of anything, so I resorted to shapes. Please, send suggestions!!

Hi. It's been a while.

And so much has happened. Let me explain. No, let me sum up.

1. Working way less (3-8 days a month)

2. Staying home way more. Matt back to work full time in Raleigh.

3. Trying to sell the house. Matt living in tiny apartment in Raleigh.

4. Enrolled Lindsay in Raleigh magnet lottery. Lindsay protested, begged to be homeschooled. Didn't match to any of our choices. Enrolled her in Spanish language immersion program here. Lindsay protested, begged to be homeschool. Thought I knew better since Lindsay loved preschool. Decided to move to Raleigh despite house not being anywhere CLOSE to selling. Enrolled L&M in summer art camp in Raleigh that is a preschool during school year. Kids LOVED it. Decided to register Lindsay as a homeschooler (oops, haven't done that paperwork yet) and home/unschool but send her to Arts Together preschool because (1) she loves it (b) there just happened to be 1 spot left in the entire preschool (3) they have yoga in the afternoon and (d) the teachers are FABULOUS.

5. Put Michael on the waiting list for Arts Together. He says, "I like black now because Miss Lauren (dance teacher) has black hair and wears a black shirt".

6. Working WAY more days this month than intended so spending time at my parents house so they can babysit. Being back at home, now that's humbling.

7. Started "officially homeschooling" - way more structured than I'd planned. Tweaking it. Some days I get out the workbooks. Other days I just record what we do to prove that Lindsay is "accomplishing something". I know I'm not a radical unschooler. I don't have it in me. But I do believe in natural learning. I don't want to do more damage at home with curriculum and my own agenda and strip Lindsay of her natural love for learning. And Lindsay is INCREDIBLY aware of and resistant to being coerced in anyway. "Try this!" ... "NO!" So we take it one step at a time.

8. Lindsay remains in remission (YEAH!!)

9. Lindsay's blood lead levels remain slightly higher than typical. This is something that happened a year prior to her being diagnosed with leukemia. Long story. Rental house, crappy landlord (would love to post a link to his prominent profile but will resist, you know who you are you jaguar-driving insert-expletive-here), crappy painters hired on the cheap by aforementioned landlord. Lead levels up, leukemia a year later. My suspicions have been up ever since. Michael's levels are normal (he was too young for significant risk of exposure when we were in the rental). We hoped Lindsay's would drop, apparently that happens. But they haven't. So I'm up in a state of irrational anxiety. The kind that mothers are good at, but cancer moms perfect. My fears are as follows: (1) did we cause her leukemia by allowing her to be exposed to lead paint (thus far I am unable to find any connection and her levels are actually within the "normal range", just a tad higher than most kids), (2) if we didn't cause her leukemia, will this low grade lead exposure cause some other problems for her down the road (obviously the IQ reduction that has been published is not apparently a problem, she's so bright... but... what would she be like without the lead exposure, without the chemo, without the 6 months in the hospital without Vitamin D)... she how crazy it feels in my head?

10. So, I'm awake at 1:22 am, in my parents house, thinking about how tired I'm going to feel tomorrow morning. But I'm also kind of looking forward to that cup of coffee and just getting the day started.

11. I'm also thinking about advertising this blog a bit more. Now that I've gotten the crazy out of my system, what do you think? Should I recruit readers? Or just write for the 2 of you who are reading :)

Kids in the Tub

The kids are in the tub. Today has been blurred by antihistamine and Sunday doldrums. Factor in cold and dreary weather, and parenting has been at an all time low.

They have to see who you are. You are human. You are a person with emotions and reactions to their behavior, just as they are a person reacting to yours. This is a summary of advice from my mother. My mother who never ever seemed any less than the perfect mother. Even when she was losing her temper.

When my mom did lose her temper (it seems that happened more when we were little than big) I used to imagine she wasn't my mother at all. She was, perhaps, a witch. But where did those pictures of my birth come from? Oh, well, she was a witch, so she cast a spell and created them. And now she was posing as my mother. Evil.

But mostly she was perfect and calm. An even-tempered disciplinarian and nurturer.

And I am none of those things on a bad day. But the kids are in the tub and I think it's going to be just fine.

blogging more often

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. Did you? What are they? Are you keeping them?

Although it's not a resolution, I have been running. By running I mean jogging with occasional uphill crawling. Still I'm thinking of doing a Team in Training marathon. We'll see. I have a few reservations. The fundraising is steep and at the moment the big training days are the day I work. Still, I think the sense of accompishment would be unparalleled.

Other than running, the new year has brought one other major change. I'm finally staying home with the kids and it's better than I imagined. More on that soon -- I promise!

Statistics

I was looking at the pics of the kids who are being honored at the upcoming St. Baldrick's event. There are a couple of AML kids who I was hoping would be honored. I have no way of getting in touch with them, but thought it would be great it they were included. I scanned the pics, reading the diagnoses and looking at the pics to see who I recognized. That's when I noticed some of the kids didn't have their ages listed. Of course, I knew Emily and Holly were being honored. Emily had Ewing's Sarcoma. Holly had AML. AML. Just like Lindsay. 1 in 2. There was another child who didn't have an age. A little boy. I had to click on his page. Why did I do it? He had neuroblastoma. That's what they originally thought Lindsay had, after they ruled out ALL. Old wounds opened. Even as I cried for this boy and his parents, I also cried for Lindsay and for myself. There are some pretty simple statistics. I think about that Doors Song. Five to One, Baby. One in Five...