Mid Term

We are officially at the half way mark of our summer math intensive. I am amazed with our progress and the program seems to get easier every day. An unexpected benefit of the program is how much closer Sara and I have become. Sara’s affection can wax and wane – if I’m working a lot it can wane, when I help her accomplish something it can wax. These last few weeks she’s been very affectionate, helpful and mostly fun to be around.

On the academic side, I believe that if we stop where we are right now, Sara would be ready for second grade math. But since last year really messed up Sara’s views of math, we are going to keep plugging along so it doesn’t happen again in second grade.

With the progress we are making, I think we can get about half way through second grade math in the next month and a half. I’m learning to be more efficient with our lessons and have found some great workbooks for Sara to complete while I’m at work. My biggest efficiency tool so far has been setting up a weekly lesson plan. Now we are hitting every topic at least once a week, our focus topics 2-3 times and flash cards and number spelling every day.

Last week I purchased a board game based on a book that inspired me in my early entrepreneur days: Rich Dad / Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. This game is for children 6 and up; they have an adult version as well. In this game kids learn about passive income (Kiyosaki’s main lesson in finance), assets and liabilities. Kids get to make choices on whether they invest their hard earned money on stocks, businesses or real estate or to keep their cash.

It’s evident very quickly that investing money is how to make your money work for you. I loved seeing Sara have to make the decision of whether to give up her money for a new business or to keep her cash. By nature, she wanted both; the business and her cash. These financial connections in her brain are going to help her understand money and prepare her to be independently wealthy in life.

In addition to the money aspect of the game, there is tons of math; adding two dice, making change for money, figuring how much money you get at each pay day, etc. Sara was able to get a lot of the math quickly vs having to figure each problem (another small victory to celebrate). The best feature of the game is that Sara has been bugging me to play it every day!

Our major goals for this week are:

– Spelling numbers up to fourteen

– Geometry – 2D vs. 3D and introduction to polygons

– Measurement; differentiate weight, volume and distance

– Carrying numbers – addition

– Subtraction intensive

Update on Sophia’s math: At this point she recognizes her numbers up to 6, can match objects with their corresponding number, knows her basic colors and shapes and can almost count to 20. I’m beginning to work on addition concepts and she seems to be getting them quite well. The biggest issue I’m seeing is with her writing; she can’t seem to write her numbers consistently.

So far, I can say that this summer math program has been a rich experience for everyone. The girls are learning very quickly and I think they are beginning to like learning, I’m figuring out how to teach at the 2nd and Kindergarten levels and I believe we, as a family are becoming closer.

I have two scriptures which inspired me for this post. This first one is back to the basics “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). My revelation on this scripture is that there are two parties with responsibilities to this commandment – the parents who need to be honorable (teachers and examples) and children, who by honoring their honorable parents will have richer and longer lives.

Which dovetails with Proverbs (22:6) “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Seeds of education, relationship and honor planted now will effect our children for their whole lives.