I did a 5 strand braid in L's hair yesterday:
It turned out well, didn't it? I used this video and it was a lot easier than I thought. I attempted a waterfall braid in E's hair today and was successful! God bless You Tube videos and all those lovely creative people who make tutorials. I have no natural hair talent.
It's 8:30 pm when I'm writing this and I am totally exhausted. I took an awesome strength class today where we did sets of 12 and kept adding on. So we did 12 squats and then 12 lunges on each leg. Then we did 12 squats, 12 lunges on each side, and then 12 chest presses. Then we did squats, lunges, chest presses, dead lifts. And on and on until we were doing squats, lunges, chest presses, dead lifts, overhead triceps, a squat with a bicep overhead extension, a shoulder thing where your arms make a W and lift overhead to an O, a modified burpee, and a couple others I'm forgetting. It fools you because you think, "Oh! Just 12! No biggie!" and you use heavy weights and a heavy bar and work hard and then you are going through the cycle for the eighth time and she's still adding stuff and it's brutal. I stayed for step class afterward and I could tell my legs were already exhausted. It was a seriously great workout.
I went grocery shopping after the Y, unpacked the groceries, and then made all the food in the entire world ever. I made bacon and waffles and these went into the freezer for Wednesday night brinner. Then I made black bean soup for tomorrow. I made mashed sweet potatoes for my lunches this week and butter chicken and rice for dinner tonight. I made school lunches and snacks for tomorrow and then I cleaned everything up. (<--cleaning up is the worst)
I picked the girls up from school and we conquered multiplying double digit numbers. E slowly worked her way through a worksheet and I could tell she was frustrated. Part of it was her saying angrily, "I am SO FRUSTRATED," and part of it was her quiet sobs. I offered help, but she kept plugging away. I gave her a cookie (FOOD IS LOVE) and told her how my mom used to "accidentally" break a cookie and then say, "Oh my! We can't serve this to a guest! I guess I'll have to eat it myself! It's a sacrifice I'll make."
When she finished the worksheet I checked her answers and she got ONE right. ONE. Out of twelve. Her sobs increased. We took a break and ate dinner before tackling it again. This time I wrote out the problems on a new sheet of paper (the erasing and rewriting! How can I see anything?) and had her talk her way through the problems so I could hear her reasoning, like "Okay, four times six is twenty-four, put the four down, carry the two . . ." It became obvious almost immediately that she was occasionally multiplying when she should have added (and vice versa) and/or forgetting that extra zero in the second line. Her answers had all been really close to correct, so I figured it would be something fixable. She cheered up when she was allowed to double check herself with the calculator and I heaped praise upon her for her perseverance and excellent attitude despite her discouragement.
I think she's hit a maturity growth spurt, because I've heard her staying calm while fighting with L and saying things like, "L. You just hit me with a ball. Who wants to play with someone who does that?" and "I'm very frustrated because I asked C not to color in this area and she has." Thumbs up.
E might find graph paper helpful when doing her problems. Each number gets its own gridded box and it can be easier to see WHERE the numbers are and where they should be (frex, the zero that often goes missing). Good job on the talking it out idea!
Posted by: Brigid Keely | February 05, 2013 at 01:54 AM
OMG, this really scares me. My first grader is just starting with adding and subtracting double digits. I am trying to make it easier for him and it ends with him crying. He did four pages last night and I was ready to bash my skull in.
Posted by: Pam | February 05, 2013 at 09:42 AM
Ah, math... when it clicks, it clicks, and when it doesn't, and you're left trying to explain algebraic equations in a non-algebra way to a 3rd grader... grrrrr. Glad she got it. It's a blow to them when it doesn't go well. I admire your patience and praise.
And... I started reading this blog entry an hour ago. You totally got me sidetracked with the braid videos. So pretty!
Posted by: CaraH | February 05, 2013 at 08:58 PM
Check out the kahnacademy.com and look for a video on the lattice method. My Annie was having problems also and i found this video and it helped so much!
Posted by: Jackie | March 17, 2013 at 08:23 PM