Signs of Language

We started sign language classes this week. Last summer, I had gotten Ella excited about possibly starting sign language because I saw how graceful she was with her hands, how expressive, and that idea really appealed to her. Plus, with Dario's hearing problem and Tatiana's plans eventually to find *him* a class so he has that extra dimension of communication, it would be cool for him to have people he loves to converse with. At least a little.

So the class I found for Ella is for ages 3-5. It's on Tuesday night at 5:30, which is a bad time so there was only one other kid in the class, another 5-year-old. So the director invited Madison to join, too, and she did. And I did. Apparently, the moms participate in this class. Which turned out to be a good thing, because it means I can practice with the kids.

It really jazzed them, and I am amazed at how fast they have learned. The stuff really sticks. They know (really know) the numbers up to 10; the colors red, blue, pink, yellow, orange, white; the words to "No more monkeys jumping on the bed"; the words snowman, shark, water, sun, orange, heart, apple; and most of the letters of the alphabet. I found it easy, too. They got these little books "My first signs" which I have incorporated into school a few days. The class is six weeks long and I think we'll take the next level, too, and then figure out where to go from there.


This morning, the girls have pottery while I have drawing. I am finding the drawing class absolutely fascinating; it's a "Drawing in the Galleries" class, which has us copying paintings or sculpture or what have you. I know this may sound really mundane, but what makes it fascinating to me is simply that I can do it. As a kid, I really couldn't. I always considered myself a non-artist. I can't picture things in my head, I can't remember details, and I'm so much more math-and-sciencey than artsy. But just as some good verbal instructions last year sent me just sailing into acrylics painting, this instructor at the Memorial Art Gallery gave some general technique instructions to the class, and some specific comments to each of us when she saw what we were doing, and away I went. This adult brain is really useful. I'll try to scan my cow from a Sorroyo painting. I'm really proud of that cow.

Handwriting everywhere

Almost everything was handwriting today, and it worked. Who'd've thunk it, after yesterday's fiasco.

Handwriting was handwriting.
Math was handwriting.
Spelling was handwriting.
Then we did more handwriting, cursive practice
Read-aloud about caves and layers of the earth wasn't handwriting.
Google research on 10 trees wasn't handwriting.

I explained to Madison at the beginning of the day that I think she's being held back by her handwriting, so we'll be doing a lot of that for the next month to give her practice.

She was actually happy about this. Go figure.

What she liked best was the page of numbers I had her do. One number per line, for 10 lines.

I had her write as many perfect numbers as she could on each line, then at the end of the line I counted up the number of numbers, then the number of which of those were good, and did the division problem with her to get the percentage that were good.

It was incentive to do it well, and that kind of thing works with her. She wants to see those percentages high.

And she was even interested, mildly, in the division equation.

Even we who consider our children just about perfect...

...have mornings in which their 7-year-old screams, whines, pouts, and carries on. All about doing some EASY math. It was too darned EASY! Boring!!Oh me oh my, you'd think I'd been sticking her with red hot pokers:

7 x 8 = 56
8 x 7 = 56
56/8 = 7
56/7 = 8


6 x 9 = 54
Now fill in the other 3 "math relationships."
__________

__________

__________


And do this for 10 other multiplication facts, the first of which is always GIVEN!

How freakin' hard is that? Not! Ella could have done it. But Madison got the sense that we're doing so much handwriting to give her practice because she has lousy handwriting (of course I never use that word) and it's holding her back.

Do you know how long it took her? An hour and a half, and that's after I told her that I am absolutely not working with her until she just does it, and she can't be in the schoolroom if she's carrying on. Many times in and out of the room carrying on.

So handwriting, handwriting, in all its guises is what we're doing this week. And possibly next week.

It's going to be one hell of a couple of weeks. She's got to get past this handwriting block. I am Just. So. Tempted. to make her competitive with Ella about this. Because Ella has great handwriting. I won't. But gosh darn it, it's so tempting...it would work...

It's a good thing I love this.

Nonsense from Charles Murray on I.Q.

From Deb:

I posted about this in a little article I wrote on KOA today, thought you might be interested in reading it. See if you agree with me that, contrary to Murray's assertion, intelligence is more a matter of free will than what you're handed at birth.

http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/main-articles/BrainFoodIntelligence.html

It's happened sooner than I thought

Ella now wants piano lessons.

Actually, this is not a glad-eyed pie-in-the-sky wish, it's active. And she proved she's ready last night by taking Madison's hand-written guide to "This Land is Your Land" which she figured out on her own the other week

G A B C C
C G A B B
etc

and started playing it on her own. She then got me to write out the letter-notes to Twinkle Twinkle and has been playing it almost perfectly, with the right rhythm and hold to the notes and everything...and singing in tune along with it. (She often doesn't sing in tune, this has actually had her modulating her voice to match the piano.)

And this morning the very first thing she did was come over to the piano to practice. And she wants me to write out MORE songs. Right now.

The problem is, of course, that *I* still want piano lessons. :-) I'm paid up for the grown-up lessons until the end of the month, I have two more. I guess then she can have my slot.

Prokofiev?

Yesterday, spontaneously, Madison went to the piano and was working on something for some time, with the headphones on. Then she went upstairs to her computer and worked on something on it for another long time.

Then she printed what she had, and it turned out to be a kind of composer's note to herself to remind herself of the storyline of the musical composition she had created. Here are the notes:

Once upon a time

M

The princess is coming (repeat 3)

I am not .... she is not content

I need a prince ..... Find a prince

A party

M

A true love at last

The only thing she would reveal about it is that the M stands for music.

She told her piano teacher all about it this morning. But none of us have heard it. She always has the headphones on.

Marrying two of Adrienne's ideas

Adrienne, children's librarian extraordinaire, has given us some good suggestions about grammar, and we took her up on both of them. Several weeks ago, I got Schoolhouse Rock out of the library, and the girls loved it. Of course, we had to return it after a week so I got David to order it in our latest Amazon order.

Yesterday, I decided to take her up on her second suggestion and do Mad Libs, of which we have several lying around. No sooner did I call out for someone to give me an adjective than Ella started singing,

Adjectives are words you use to really describe things,
Handy words to carry around.

Guess Schoolhouse Rock really stuck! The new one came today and the girls are watching it.

Very successful day, yesterday.

On the Beach

David took Madison and Ella up to Lake Ontario this afternoon to do a little hiking, exploring, and beachcombing. (We adore this 45-degree winter!)

They found no shells, but got several good rocks and, apparently, saw lots of dead fish. Carp, some fairly eviscerated and disgusting. David says the girls were simultaneously appalled and fascinated.

Afterward, Madison was relating how she had seen, among the dead fish, a dead baby shark.

"Well, no," said David. "There are no sharks in Lake Ontario."

"Why?"

"Because it's fresh water, and sharks only live in salt water."

After only a short pause, she replied, "Well, I guess that's why it was dead!"

All I want is having you and music, music, music!

This week has been heavy on music. Madison started back up with piano lessons with Mrs. B, who comes to our house on Wednesday mornings. I take the slot right after hers, which I will relinquish to Ella when she begs me to do so, which will indicate she's ready to practice.

Madison is a LOT better than she was when she left off just before she turned 6. And I am far and away better than I was when I left off at the age of 10.

It's mostly, I think, that we both understand music so much better.

In the gap time, Madison grasped tune (to be able to match her voice to a note) and rhythm (well, to some extent). When she's playing something, she's now able to listen to herself play, and grasp the extent to which it matches her expectations for the melody.

In the (27-year) gap time for me, I not only learned a LOT of music theory from playing the cello (age 8-17...that sounds like a long time but really, I never got very good), but as a post-college adult I gained a lot of appreciation for different kinds of music, particularly jazz. So I can put together a whole composition much better than I used to--it parallels Madison's new grasp of the piece as a whole. I have a sense of how a piece is supposed to sound.

Plus, both hands work together now. I have a different brain now, and it enables me to use both hands at the same time. (This may be partly attributable to my ability to type fast.) It's fascinating, I can practically feel the new neural pathways forging in my brain every time I practice something difficult.

I just downloaded the piano part to Five For Fighting's song "100 Years." I love this song. It became my representative song when we moved to Virginia a year-and-a-half ago, and it's also my representative song for moving back to Rochester. One of those notice-whats-going-on-at-this-stage-in-life-because-one-day-all-you'll-have-is-your-memory songs. It's also a beautiful piano part.

One great aspect of my doing piano is that I want to practice ALL THE TIME. And that means that practicing has become something enjoyable and interesting for Madison, too. It's a new bond between us. It's no longer a chore for her, because it so obviously isn't a chore for me, as I steal over to the keyboard every chance I get. It's something that much more appealing.

Also, both girls have had the opportunity to hear me getting a LOT better at a couple of songs over the last couple of days, which is a marvelous lesson for them about the power that comes from working hard at something. Of course, it may not be totally realistic for them -- what would have taken me weeks and weeks of practice when I was 10 now takes me an hour or two.

The fact is, I'm paying attention to what I'm doing in a radically different way than I did when I was 10, and this gives me some insight to what's going on in a kid's brain. There is no way I was even close to this level of focus 27 years ago -- my brain would go in all directions. (Primarily: "How much longer do I have to practice? Am I at the half-hour mark yet?") So because my brain so clearly worked differently then, this reminds me that focus, like music, takes practice, practice, practice.

So...what has YOUR brain worked on today?


*P.S. The title of this post is from "Music, Music, Music" by Ray Charles. ("Put another nickel in...in the nickelodeon.") I had known the song, but hadn't known Ray wrote it! Another nice connection that I never would have made as a kid.

Darting ahead to fun math

This is probably terribly contrary to Saxon's recommendations, but now that we have the multiplication tables pretty much nailed, I wanted to fulfill my promise to Madison that the fun math comes after the tedious work of memorizing those tables. So we went on to fairly simple algebra:

3x + 2 = 29
6x - 3 = 15
x-squared - 5 = 20

Those kinds of equations.

She doesn't particularly like it that I make her do them out - i.e., for the first one, subtracting the 2 from both sides and then writing 3x=27, then x=9. She wants to do them in her head. David remembers having the same frustration all the way through school, but he agrees with my rationale to her: You need to know the method in order to be able to apply it to more complex problems. Also, I think it's a useful skill to be able to concretize what you're doing in your head so quickly.

And then, just over the weekend in casual conversation, we moved on to graphing X and Y and what a function is.

See, she'd made up her own function in her head, and was busy applying it all the time. So we decided to show her what it looks like in a graph. Just casually, over the lunch table. This is what happens in a mathematician's house.

Madison's Function:

Take your favorite 2-digit number. To find your SECOND-favorite two digit number, here is the method: Take the two digits and add them together. Then subtract that result from your favorite number (unless your favorite is smaller, then subtract the favorite from that result), and add those together with the original number. That's your second favorite number.

David graphed it on Excel and it looks like this:


While he was working on the function, I gave her a basic introduction to graphing X and Y points, using the simple kinds of equations that she's been working on, but substituting Y for the answer:

3x + 2 = y

I first showed her what an X,Y coordinate was, then started at x=0 and started generating Y results. I told her in passing what a Y-intercept is. After four or so answers were graphed, she saw that it made a line, and was equally fascinated that you can simply extend the line with a ruler and you'll get the answers for all other values of X.

Then, she had enough background knowledge to be able to understand in general what the graph of her own function was all about.

I know it's morning, but...

I just went to wake up Madison, who loves to sleep in. But it's a school day!

Still 2/3 asleep, she muttered as she was turning back over:

"I know it's morning. But I feel like a carousel horse. It's like there is a pole through me and I can't go anywhere unless the carousel moves me there."

Get-Out-Of-God Free

Madison's first Brownie event is tomorrow, a hike in the park that is right across the street from our house!

I got the registration information yesterday, and saw to my chagrin that we both have to sign the Girl Scout Promise:

The Girl Scout Promise

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God* and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

You see the asterisk next to God. On the Girl Scout web site, that asterisk refers to this:

* The word "God" can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on one's spiritual beliefs. When reciting the Girl Scout Promise, it is okay to replace the word "God" with whatever word your spiritual beliefs dictate.

This is a good thing, because the info they sent us didn't give us this little Get-Out-Of-God-Free option, and David and I got a bit nervous about whether anyone was going to make a fuss about this. That's the last thing we wanted for Madison to have to experience. But given what the web site said, I didn't have the least problem signing off on it.

A new spelling program, going to give it a shot

We've not been able to be at all systematic about spelling with Madison this year. I saw a post from another blogger about a program called AVKO (avko.org). It supposedly teaches using related word families rather the spelling lists. No memorization...you just have the child spell the word and immediately correct them if it is wrong. It relies strongly on seeing patterns, which is one of Madison's strengths. They have a seven-day tryout page, so we'll probably do that and see if it works.

Running out of Jesus

The St. Paul's ceremony last night was lovely, if a little long. The church was indeed beautiful, the priest actually made some engaging points in the sermon and delivered it well (probably the best we've heard in our quest for historic churches -- although almost all sermons we have heard are dismal, so that's really not saying much). The woman behind me sang alto, which helped me remember the alto parts to the various carols, which was fun.

We also went to the Episcopalians last year in Virginia. It was interesting that that service was much closer to Protestantism, while the one at St. Paul's was almost identical to Catholicism's. (Almost too close for the comfort of my psyche, actually.)

So of course, we had more theology discussion in the car on the way home. I explained that although the ceremony was extremely close to Catholicism, one of the differences is in their views on transubstantiation: The Episcopalians regard the breaking of the bread as a symbolic act by the priest, whereas the Catholics believe the priest has magic powers and ACTUALLY turns the communion wafer into the body of Jesus.

My little logician in the back seat said, "But that doesn't make any sense. After just a little while, wouldn't they run out of Jesus?"

Why not just hate the person they marry?

Each year, on Christmas Eve, we visit a different historic church and go to the family service to sing Christmas carols. This year, we're going to St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

We were explaining at dinner what it meant to be an Episcopalian, how they straddle the Catholics and the Protestants in terms of both theology and services. I was explaining that one dimension on which Episcopalians are different from Catholics is that their priests are allowed to marry, whereas Catholic priests aren't. Madison was interested in why the Catholics have this rule, and David said that the logic is that they're supposed to devote themselves completely to God, rather than to a wife.

She replied, "Well, how about if they just hate the person they marry, that would be ok, wouldn't it?"

Lightbulb Day

We had our Lightbulb Day celebration last night. It was a kind of modified Lightbulb Day, because I decided we needed to do the zoo for school instead of create our inventions game. So we didn't do games, just the usual gathering around the fire, lighting candles, talking about human inventiveness, and celebrating our favorite inventions. A little discussion about the invention of fire gave Madison the opportunity to give a little lecture about hominid development (she's been reading about human evolution lately) and then she remembered a Cherokee legend, Turquoise Boy, which talked about the invention of horses as transportation for American Indians. (We studied American Indians last month.) She regaled us for 10 minutes with the story, and remembered far more details than I had.

It was all fun, but perhaps not as much fun as in years past because I didn't really have my act together. And so, Madison, my little glass-half-empty-phase girl, designated it as "the worst holiday we've ever celebrated." Was it bad? No, it was good, it was just "the worst." I had to explain that we only use "worst" in cases in which something really is bad. Otherwise, it's "lowest ranked." She decided to continue on the negative track, though, and pronounced it "worst." She really liked the little hand-held computer game we gave her, though.

Anyway, we really did have a good time. Here is a photo of Ella whacking at the Lightbulb pinata. Yes, she's on a stool, yes, she's wearing a blindfold, yes, she's using a bat, yes, she's right in front of our brick fireplace. Yes, we're probably bad parents, especially after the brick-diving incident from earlier this year.

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo -- how about you, you you?

Yesterday, we went to the Seneca Park Zoo for school. The Rochester Zoo in December, you ask? Sure! It was almost 50 degrees and sunny, but you can even go in the cold and it's still fun. Our real estate agent gave us a one-year membership to the zoo, and we decided to take advantage of it. Both girls brought notebooks, and Madison sketched some animals with the names upder them. But Ella really went to down, writing down the name of every single animal we visited. While I read about the animals, she wrote, very proudly and as neatly as she could. Really great, especially for 5 1/2. Here is a photo of the notebook page:

Grammar

I'm going to start Madison with the rules of grammar. I plan to use the Montessori method of assigning certain colored shapes to parts of speech, unless one of the four people who read this blog has another suggestion.

I wouldn't mind using a good book, too, I never mind shortcuts.

But I know grammar, I figure I'll do this by the seat of my pants for now.

(David, the comma and period go INSIDE the double-quotes except in very very special circumstances. Under the imaginary middle of the line, inside. Two marks or over the imaginary middle of the line (; : ! ? ), outside.)

Homeschooling, again, finally

From Deb:

We started homeschooling again today, for the first time in two weeks. I say TWO weeks, in the sense of, well, ok, THREE weeks, if you want to be picky.

Homeschooling in the dentist's office!

It was a day of completely on-the-go, as in two haircuts, three dental cleanings, four notarized documents, zero new driver's licenses (despite aborted attempt), and a partridge in a pear tree.

While each girl was in the chair getting checked, her sister was learning all about the structure of teeth in one of our human body books, and I made Dr. Parnes give them lectures about dentin and enamel. Then, while I was in the chair, they worked. Really did, out in the reception area on math and handwriting, and the receptionist comment on how well-behaved and sweet they were! I love this age. Possibly it was the carrot of a trip to McDonald's that made them that way, though.

(Madison will need rather immediate orthodonture work as a six-year molar is slamming diagonally into a baby tooth and consequently not growing. Sigh.)

By the way, concerning physiology, they both had checkups at their pediatrician on Monday. The P.A., who has known them since birth, pronounced them "perfect." Height, weight, spine, you name it. And, believe it or not, Ella decided she wasn't going to cry during her three 5-year-old vaccination shots, and SHE DIDN'T. Really. You should have seen the triumphant look on her face. She says they didn't really hurt all that much, especially not compared with the brick-diving nose injury back in February. Ouch.

Madison finished the multiplication tables!

Because of the moving chaos, I was not able to post that Madison finished memorizing her multiplication tables! She had about six to go in the week before we left, which sent her into a panic, because her big prize that she'd eyed for months was at the Toys R Us there, a stuffed-animal horse, and she couldn't stand the idea of having to move without it.

So she asked for a hand with the last six problems.

I came up with YET ANOTHER strategy for memorizing them, and it worked, she did those in one day. I am sure that it was more the motivation than my strategy, but here is what I did.

We have a whole bunch of stickers in a sticker box. I decided to use those, with a different type of sticker for each equation.

We took note cards and made flash cards, with the equations on one side, and the answers on the other, and put a certain kind of stickers on each card, on both sides, with a little story to go with both the numbers and the stickers. And lo and behold, it worked!

She got this horse at Toys R Us. An enormous stuffed horse which is almost as big as she is. She named it Rosebud, and it sleeps with her. The child adores that horse.