Friday, March 26, 2010

Math, math, and more math

So, I've mentioned before that we've been blessed with about a million math products through the TOS Homeschool Crew this year.

Well, while I was busy beating myself up and writing my earlier post (by the way, now it is SNOWY days and Fridays getting me down!) my children grabbed Timez Attack and went to the old computer to play it.  We have an old version of the game which we can't use on the Macs, and it hasn't been touched since, oh, last summer.

When last they played, ALL of my kids found the game pretty frustrating.  That would be because my kids do not know their math facts like they "should" so they just aren't fast enough.  All of the boys can multiply.  They just can't do much of it quickly.

Well, since they last played Timez Attack, they have used ALEKS, Quartermile Math, Mathletics, Math Score, Facts First, Math Mammoth, Math Galaxy, and some of them have been using IXL Math.  Plus they've had a couple different math videos, and some of them have even been using a regular math curriculum. (And I've probably forgotten something!)

So after about an hour of playing Timez Attack today, my boys excitedly informed me that all these programs (each one credited something different) have paid off... they are now finding TimezAttack to be a lot of fun, and are making serious progress with it.

YAY!!

So, apparently, I can do something right.


1 comment:

Deb said...

Debra! Stop being so hard on yourself! My goodness! You are a wonderful, caring mom and sure, you might be falling behind in some areas - but aren't we all?

I swear, I vacillate DAILY about which one of my kids is getting the shaft. Fretting constantly about who isn't getting enough teaching, cuddling, discipline, vegetables....

Just this week I beat myself up for not spending enough time doing pre-k with my daughter, not spending enough time in general with her because my son is being a naughty-pants and surely he is being naughty because I am doing something wrong and school falls by the wayside because it's so TIRING to be The Hammer and correct my son's behaviour, an potty train my daughter and plus all that self-doubt takes up a lot of time, and I haven't even talked about all the other areas I am sucking at, like going on a diet or knitting a blanket or making something for dinner besides noodles or pizza because I am JUST SO TIRED of the meal-time angst....

It's just the way of motherhood, I think. You are not alone, k? And seriously - when I read about the work that Connor does and then I realize how young he is, I am amazed! Maybe a break from Latin? Or a re-evaluation of what you can expect from him? Or a little kick in the pants to get him back on track? You'll figure it out. But cut yourself some slack, ok?

Also, if you can find a way to blame it on this insane Colorado weather we are getting, that works too... We have gotten very little schoolwork done this week. Something about a snow day makes me just want to cuddle and watch cartoons.