Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

It is hot today. Incredible. In the 80's I am sure. We are all sweating and I am rethinking the beef stew that I was going to make for dinner. It is Sunday and I want to be lazy, but I have a few things to write and then maybe I will work on photoshop a bit. As of right now, I understand enough about my computer to move around it. I stumble at times, forget where to find something or how to use something, but I am no longer a beginner. But I have about 9 months left on my tutoring at the Apple store. I am thinking of coming up with a few projects and asking for help. A web site for sure, maybe more with Julia's book. I am in the 950's for entries on this blog, when I get to 1000, I should move to a web site. And everything is so much more fun using the Apple programs, blogging might be as well.

Julia and I did some work today -- home work. We have not done much or often for months now. We do some reading or a few pages of workbooks. Yesterday, she pulled a very easy work book down -- one that was first too hard for her and then too easy. She did about 5 pages with very little help. I was impressed with her willingness but it did not carry over to today when I suggested working.

So we did a little holding, cuddling together. She was upset but really at a very low level. I talked to her very seriously about learning. Julia kept her eyes on me. She looked like she was listening. I told her seriously what she had to learn and why. And then, she calmed down and said she was willing to work.

We did some reading of an Angelina book that we started a few months ago. We went over half the book and I checked vocab words to make into flash cards. We did a spelling workbook page. Julia understands reading. She knows that letters have sounds and that the sounds make up words. She cannot sound out words yet but the concepts are there. Julia guesses at words she doesn't know. More often than not these days, her guesses are taken from the picture or from the first letter sound. This is a leap from a few months ago. She loves exclamation words and remembers them very quickly. At school, she read a level 6 book last week. I think that represents the middle of Kindergarten.

And then there is math. Not really math, numbers. Julia still doesn't get numbers. I think she is doing a good job faking it in school -- doing mostly one-on-one and taking cues from her teachers, but although she knows the words for number, she does not get the theory. I don't know how to even explain this -- I have always loved numbers and understood number theory almost without being taught. It always made sense. I have not found any "method" to help kids without a number sense that doesn't just go in for repetition and manipulatives until some light just goes off. Can number sense be taught?

David is not feeling well today. He slept for a long time last night and then after a short walk this morning, took a long nap. It is hot and humid. I fear the change of weather might be effecting him much more than the rest of us.