Friday, January 23, 2009

Ok, My Turn

This isn't a very good picture, but I'm playing by the rules. Halloween 2007. Pumpkin carving in the back building (Pictures back there always turn out funky...still trying to figure this out.) Lydia said she wanted to carve "God," so Brian did his best. I think he did a smiling face and she was happy.



















In other news, a have a small sucess story that has greatly encouraged me today. For the past few weeks, Sam has grumbled every time we take out "math." (Although I love the program and he is doing fantastic.) We have had a challenging week, so we took yesterday off and played in the snow all morning. Today I knew we should get back at it, but I was feeling a bit discouraged and reluctant as well. We set the timer for 10 minutes (our agreed upon time to work on math, which to me feels like a drop in the bucket and to Sam feels like he has to fill up a bucket with a dropper) and began practicing adding "9." For the first few problems, he was still struggling to put the pieces together and relying a lot on the manipulatives and counting. Then, something I said, I don't even rememeber what, just struck him and I literally SAW the lightbulb illuminate his brain. His eyes brightened, he sat up straight, looked and me and confidently told me that "9 plus 6 is fifteen" and then went on to quickly and correctly answer any other "plus 9" problem I gave him!!! I love helping my kids learn. This feels so good!!! Lord, help me remember this next time I get discouraged.
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1 comment:

Eric said...

You just described the "a-ha" moment. It feels good, and is very satisfying as a teacher. Perhaps that's what keeps us going. One philosopher even envisioned "heaven" as an infinite series of "a-ha" moments. Actually, he may not be that far off...