Do the Math

Saturday morning was pleasantly lazy here this weekend.  I can't even remember what we did except the kids did their homework and I was stunned at the math they are both doing now.  Sierra was adding two-digit numbers for the first time.  I listened as she talked herself through the process.  At first the problems were easy (none of what used to be called "carrying" to the next column) but as they progressed and she went through the steps, I feared she had no idea what she was doing, but...voila!...she did know, she got the answer exactly right every time.  Well, knock me over with an art-supply box.  My girl can draw AND do the math. 

Now I will just have to wait for her to invent the self-cleaning room.

Jeremiah claimed he was doing "algebra."   I refrained from saying anything like "oh you poor kid, you're only in 4th grade and you won't do algebra for several years..." which was incredibly wise of me because as it turns out, he was doing algebra.  Well, knock me over with a baseball cap.  My boy can turn a double play AND do the math.

I shouldn't be surprised that the kids do well in math, but I remember when Jeremiah was 4 and in pre-school he had so much trouble just learning to count to 20.  He would do fine until 12 then almost always skip 13 and/or 14 and head right to 15.   First time parent that I was, I can remember the anxiety I felt thinking that it might just be the end of the world as I knew it if I could not hear the kid say twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen before Thanksgiving. 

I tried so many different (and now I see not-very-creative) techniques to help him.  I'm sure the poor kid felt all my anxiety and that didn't help.  But then I happened to buy a Number Bingo game.  Well, knock me over with a red chip, the kid suddenly was not only counting to twenty but adding numbers together with his dad and learning some of the names of numbers in Spanish.

I've learned not only to use games but to be much more patient, too.  When it seemed like it was time for Sierra to learn to swim, I signed her up for swimming lessons.  Twenty-five dollars and two weeks later she was still sitting on the steps at the edge of the pool, glaring at her mother and her teacher.  Her teacher began some glaring of her own after Sierra sunk her fingernails into the poor girl's neck as the tried to carry her into the water.  So I just waited.  When Sierra was ready to swim (about 3 years later) she taught herself the basics then asked me to sign her up for lessons so she could, as she put it, "learn to swim a lot faster."  As it turns out, she's pretty much a dolphin in the water now. 

And did I mention she can add?