Beware of Greeks Doing Saxon Math

From Deb (Laura, I know how insanely busy you've been lately but I miss you!):

Madison has been going along steadily, about two per day, on her multiplication tables. It only takes her between 5-10 minutes of study, and I'm actually unaware of what method she's using to remember the equations.

So I decided officially to start her on the Saxon Math 54 book yesterday. She didn't even have to write out the problems herself, she only had to provide the answers in the numbered spaces I provided. And it's easy, easy, easy. Addition. Along the lines of 5 + 4 + N + 6 + 15 = 35, what is N?

All hell broke loose. She had weird tantrum upon tantrum, apologizing after each one, then taking up the whine again, and it took the child two hours to do 27 problems. Plus, two were wrong and 12 had numbers written backwards. She knows she could have done these in 15 minutes tops, if she had put her mind to it. She even joked: two-hours-for-27-problems, can you imagine? -- at dinner last night with our across-the-street neighbors whom I'd invited over for a pork roast. I figured it was just an anomaly, and didn't worry about it.

Today, I sat her down again in front of it, without comment about yesterday's fiasco. 29 problems today. And again, not entirely to my surprise because she'd awoken in a kind of "testing" mood: fidgeting, tears, weird whining. All for stuff that is easy for her! I figured she'd just decided to test me about what I would do. About 20 minutes into it, I picked the book up and put it back on the shelf, saying it was clear that she couldn't do it. And then, of course, for the next 45 minutes she threw a fit, begging to do it now that I'd taken it away from her. I had to lock her out of the schoolroom for a bit so I could work with Ella.

Then she calmed down and asked to do it.

"Sure, go ahead and take it off the shelf and do it, if you think you can," I told her. "I just think maybe you're not ready for it!"

She wanted ME to take it off the shelf and open up her notebook again. Yeah, right.

Eventually, she took it off the shelf and did it, actually very neatly. But it took up 1 1/2 hours total today, and because someone was coming to see the house and we had to leave in the early afternoon, we consequently didn't have time to work together on The Frontier Team book. She didn't like that. Maybe tomorrow the book will be more of an incentive, I'll make it clear that if we have time to work on it, we will.

But in more positive news...

We started a unit on Ancient Greece, for both kids. Yesterday I read to them some of the history as it is written in What Your Second Grader Needs to Know, and today we did the Greek myths from a separate section in the same book.

And guess what...Ella is now on fire about the Greek myths! Go figure! So we went to the library when the house was being shown this afternoon, and got out a bunch of books: four about Ancient Greece and two about Greek mythology (one the Usborne Greek Myths for Young Readers, another a more sophisticated one). We read Greek myths at the library, then for another hour when we went out to a late lunch (the Red Lobster people were amused), then for another half hour back at home, then for another 45 minutes before bed. (We did Heracle's Tasks before bed...the fact that he was doing these out of penitence for killing his children grabbed the girls' attention, as you might imagine. Madison was in Lawyer Mode -- it wasn't fair, she pointed out, that he had to do penance for something that was really Hera's fault, as she had magically caused his fit of rage.)

Madison really likes the stories, too -- she even chose the more sophisticated mythology book as her "read-before-bedtime" book -- but Ella is absolutely captivated. I'm going to get some toga material and dress them up as goddesses, maybe next week as a carrot for getting through some more of the history. I wouldn't be surprised if Ella turns from devising roles for herself as female superheroes (all the rage here on Berwick Court) to devising powers for herself as a Greek goddess. Wait until we get to Helen of Troy and she realizes that the names "Ella" and "Helen" are from the same root.

This is the first intellectual thing that has really captured and held Ella's attention. I think she's in a real transitional period; I posted a week or two ago about how Ella has never liked to be read the more sophisticated things, preferring picture books. Well, these books have stories that are a lot more sophisticated; the word-to-picture ratio is far higher than what she is accustomed to. I think the fact that there are some pictures (actually very nice ones) helps to hold that part of her attention, and she is really following along with the stories.

I had a good time telling them the Roman names of some of the Greek gods, and helping them make connections such as to the planets. They were particularly excited about the Poseidon-Nepture God of the Sea. Why? Well, in two months we will have our own personal Neptune in our new house on Penfield Road. The people who are leaving are planning to leave it behind -- Neptune -- ever-watchful as you can see -- is right on the edge of our own little woods, and you can apparently see him from the parlor window. I pointed out to Madison that if people ask whether she believes in God, she can always say "Of course!" and point to Neptune. She enjoyed the joke.

We've done Raphael's School of Athens before -- at least I have with Madison, and we'll do it again in the context of actual Athens when we do the history later this week. I've reviewed with her the general stuff about the difference in Plato vs. Aristotle, how Plato is pointing at the sky and the folks on his side are the religious philosophers, and how Aristotle is pointing at the ground and the folks on his side are scientists. Madison really does understand the basics. Ella didn't get it yet, and I think she won't get it this time around either, it will have to wait a year or two. I think we have time! :-)