Actually, we plan on homeschooling year round, so I guess this isn't completely true, but our schedule is starting to lighten up as some of our regular activities are ending, so I guess that counts for something.
The weather was beautiful today! We had a nice relaxing day at home, got some much needed cleaning done, did some errand running with Derrick in the afternoon, and ended the evening with a nice walk around the neighborhood to chat with some neighbors and pick up a few misplaced golf balls.
I love the flexibility of homeschooling: some days we work a lot, some days we play a lot, some days we cook a lot, and some days we just sit around and talk a lot... it is wonderful!
Over the last few weeks, Ethan has been in the math grove. We have started to commit to memory, and really work hard on addition facts before moving on to our other lessons in our Math-U-See Alpha curriculum, and he has been craving math problems all day long! He loves to be quizzed and asks often for us to give him an addition problem and he will "equal them up". In the past, Derrick and I would just give him the "easy ones" (as he would refer to them), which were the addition table facts that he was learning (such as 2+7, 5+7 or 6+3), but now he has been working some pretty impressive math problems for a child his age (like 28+36 or 42+38). He does all of these in his head, and actually impresses us at times when we give him something that we think we will stump him on and he tells us exactly how he thought out the problem. He doesn't always follow the columns as I was taught as a kid, he rounds and subtracts from the smaller number and sometimes beats me to the answer as I am trying to "think it out" in my head to check his answer. I am so amazed. For example, in the 28+36 problem, he would round up the 28 to 30 and take those extra 2 he used from the 6 in 36 to get 4 and then he would add 30+34 to get 64. Pretty impressive if you ask me, especially coming from a preschooler!
So, this is one of the reasons why we will continue to homeschool all summer, off and on... he is loving it and I don't want to shut off what he is doing so wonderfully right now. If asked, he will say that Math is his favorite subject in school! (Like father like son.)
Yesterday in the car he asked me what comes next after he learns all of his addition facts. I explained to him that we will work on learning subtraction (and after giving him a few problems for an example he quickly decided that he was not finding that much of a challenge) so we talked a little about multiplication. He thought multiplication was a fun concept and said he can't wait to work on this area of math! Derrick and I looked at each other and smiled, we are so blessed to have a child that enjoys being taught this much. I thank God for Ethan's ability to quickly catch on to new concepts, which helps make our decision to homeschool so much easier!
On the other end of the spectrum... Everett has been doing amazing too! He counted to 4 today while reading a book with me! I don't always know what is getting in with him, as he is a totally different child in the way he learns, so when I see things come out, it is so much fun! I thank God I have the opportunity to teach my children at home. I really do love what I do all day!
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