Okay, it's been about 8 months since Fred left school, and we have begun to have the kind of home-schooling days I imagined it would be.
Today 12.12.12 F did 2 lessons of his TT Math5, so he's up to 49. I read a chapter of The Midnight Fox and we read through the first unit of CGP KS2 English Study book together. He really enjoyed it.
Ruby & I watched her TT7 lesson on long division together yesterday as well as various other tutorials & practice sheets. Today she did 2 long div worksheets & then started today's TT math unit. She said she was getting the answers right, but the remainders wrong. So we need to do some more work with remainders. After about 10 minutes she lost patience though.
I have an idea that, once she's got long division, she can go on to pre-algebra.
What we have been doing- this takes me back to my own school days. sitting, bewildered, as the teacher placed random numbers in a bewildering array of positions, all the while my fellow pupils were all shouting them out & seemed to know where they would go, and why.
When a kindly teacher would explain how to do a particular sum to me, i would be able to do it that day, but have no idea again the next maths lesson. My mind would be blank when i saw the sums set out.
What have I learned, that am able to pass on to my beloved students, is:
To do this sum you need to follow a sequence of steps. Each step is made up of a sequence of steps. We are going to slowly learn the names of the main steps in order. once we know them we can start learning the steps... there is no hurry. we only need to look at the names today (etc)
So Ruby made a poster based on " divide, multiply, subtract, drop down " symbols.
And we are getting there slowly.
F...well, I scribe for him for everything at the moment. He has very large handwriting and sums are set out far too small for him to fill in. Also, each sum in a row, he needs to refocus on thinking about maths as his thoughts leave the book immediately! It is quite tiresome & today i tried to show him that he was winding me up
However....it had been peaceful, no shouting or recriminations today!!
So consider it a success!
