Levi came to me asking for help with his math, in which he is doing area and perimeter. He’s been working on it for about a month now, at least, interspersed with his regular multiplication, and still can’t tell me which one uses multiplication, and which one uses addition. I can literally say it directly to him one minute, and he can’t remember the next minute. I went over several examples with him of how we use them in real life, and on Saturday, I even got him to help me figure out how much fence we would need for the perimeter of our garden. After much exasperation on both our parts, and my patience wearing thin, he started crying. I wasn’t yelling at him, or anything, but I was getting very frustrated. I gave him a big hug and said, “It’s hard to learn math with your mom fussing at you, huh?” He tearily agreed. So, we came up with a song to remember the difference between the two. It’s sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Area is length times width,
Those you multiply-y.
Perimeter is adding up
The length of every side.
Chorus:
All the squares that fit inside,
The area will tell you.
Perimeter is how much fence
The hardware store should sell you.
Thankfully, that brought out a much better attitude from both of us, and he was happy with the song. He’s been singing it to himself, so, hopefully, it will work! I’m not very good at coming up with creative ideas for school if I don’t have to, because I’m the kind of person that just wants to get the job done and go on with life. I have to remember, however, that a little extra effort will bring a lot more smiles and a LOT better attitudes! That makes all the difference in the day!
Yesterday, Sunday, we had two great worship services with two wonderful lessons. We really are blessed to have some good speakers in our congregation, as their lessons are always thought-provoking with a good balance of encouragement and admonishment. After the evening service, about 30 of us went bowling and had an awesome time. It was my first time bowling with my OWN ball (passed down from my grandmother), which was exciting, since I only go two or three times a year. I also hit a major milestone, bowling TWO games over 100, which is a first for me. They were only 107 and 108, but I was happy. Mostly, it was just fun being all together and cheering each other on. It’s times like that when we really bond with our brothers and sisters and make them part of our everyday lives, and not just “Sunday friends.”
Saturday was a productive day for us, as I hope to be reporting for the next few months. It was a little drizzly and cold, but Craig got the garden fence moved to a new location and built some of the boxes for our square foot gardens. I spent a little time starting seeds in trays, with Luke’s help, some time researching soil composition online, and a good part of the day cooking. I would rather have been outside, but Craig had the boys to help him.
It’s so nice to see them all working together, and the boys really able to help, instead of just messing around, making a mess, and fighting. They’ll be little men before we know it! As I write this, however, two of them are in their beds for 30 minutes… for fighting. They just can’t help it sometimes, I guess, those little amateur testosterone factories.It’s a beautiful day out today, sunny and warm by most people’s standards. I still think it’s pretty cool, but tomorrow and the next day, we’re supposed to get cold rain and snow. I’m pretty excited about that, and that it’s not on Thursday, when we drive into town. We’ve sure had a lot of cold weather and precipitation this year. More than I remember ever seeing in South Texas. That “global warming,” boy, it’s killer!
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