Sean is getting close to the end of Key to Algebra book 6. He will easily finish by mid-month, even if he keeps going at a slower pace. He still spends about the same time per day on math — 20 minutes or a bit more — but it takes longer to get through a page. He is on factoring, multiplying, and dividing quadratic equations. He works more comfortably if I sit next to him, and he can ask me if one problem is right before moving on to the next one. I do this, but still wonder (even though he is my fourth child!) about the differences between this and the way I did math. I sat in classroom and of course, the teacher couldn’t give me feedback after every problem. I learn how to guess and improvise! on the other hand, Sean used to have a habit of plunging recklessly through a math or grammar page and if he didn’t “get it” he would get the whole page wrong. So maybe talking through it is a good thing for him. It’s always hard to judge those things. Occasionally I consider having him do math narrations or a journal to write down why some things are the way they are. When he tries to factor out of addition phrases, for example, I try to go back to a basic example where he can see for himself how wrong the answer would be. I like Euclid’s “which is absurd” which Charlotte Mason talks about — how in math, the child should have the reasoning demonstrated to him so he can see it himself. Augustine says how foolish would be the father who would send his son to a schoolmaster to hear the schoolmaster’s opinion on things — no, he wants his son to perceive the truth for himself by guidance, at most, of the schoolteacher.
Kieron is starting factoring in Saxon 65. He continues to impress me with how readily he grasps the concepts. He would rather read or play on the computer though! And thus, his attention span is not that long so I can’t go through two lessons a day, though in some ways I would like to.
I read him some more of Jotham’s Journey and Sean read Fabiola, and did Latin Quia.
JoVE wrote some interesting thoughts on math. I hope to get to write about them at more length; however, right now I am going to do Icelandic sagas and Logic with Brendan, who has asked to start logic again.
Aidan can finally count with reasonable consistency. I intend to try to set up a math center — there are some ideas in Fundamentals of Homeschooling. Paddy continues to be fascinated with counting and tries to count everything that doesn’t count him first. So I am thinking that they would love a center for manipulatives to sort, sequence and quantify.
