Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Fractions have been the...

bane of my existence since my own third grade experience. For my Pele, they have become the devil of his life as well.

We have tried fraction manipulatives involving chocolate, cookies, actual pie, plastic pieces of pie and tiles. I have drawn pictures, told stories and acted out cutting myself into half and fourths. (Yeah, try that one some day.)

But it has been a tedious road of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Just ask Husband who comes home to find me dissolved into the very fractious pieces I'm trying to teach.

So, dear readers, friends, and fellow homeschooling moms who know of the travail I speak, today marked a MAJOR victory in fractions. Pele sat down and completed twenty problems without my instruction, without frustration and did EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. correctly.

Did you HEAR me? C-O-R-R-E-C-T-L-Y!!!  !!! !!!!  (The extra exclamation points are utterly warranted. Do not go all grammar police or blog etiquetteish on me!)

I'm exhausted with a sense of triumph. And the epic point of the day, no matter what fractions bring us tomorrow, is the everlasting image burned into my brain of the smile on his face when he realized his own accomplishment.

And that right there alone is reason to Hallelujah!

5 comments:

  1. Praise God! As the mother of a formerly math-phobic daughter, one to whom every new math concept brought fear and tears, I rejoice in Pele's success with fractions right along with you!

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  2. I bow at the feet of your Fraction Prowess, Mama. Well done.

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  3. Your feed on my blog page just shows your post title, but I KNEW what the first line of your post was before I even clicked to come on over.

    "bane of my existence."

    MATH is the bane of my existence. And this is PinkGirl's YEAR. She HAS to come out of this year feeling like she can do this! (Third grade.) We've ordered her a home copy of her math book and we are deciding on incentives for practice, her big brother has been briefed/threatened/begged for cooperation and encouragement (he's FREAKY smart with math, like his dad.) For her, the example of 1/2 is going to be "okay, you perform in the first part of the play, then there's intermission and you perform in the second part of the play. The first half is BEFORE intermission and the second half is AFTER intermission and they both together make up ONE play. . . We may sing the explanation for added effect.

    This is a BIG math year for her. I pray for the same success!

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  4. Woo hoo! Any mom who would "fraction" herself deserves to see success... congratulations!

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