Random encounter tables and math.
I just ran into a Dragonrealms Trailblazer on Ravelry. I remember her – she and her husband were quite well-known. It’s like I happened to run into a high school pal in a coffeeshop in Minsk or something. What are the odds? She and her husband are playing Gemstone now, which I’m glad to hear. It makes me smile to think of them and the old days.
I’m ramping up the amount of schoolwork I do with Emily to get her ready to return in a few weeks. She was rusty on some things, like subtracting with regrouping, but the mechanics of it came back. More troubling is that she still has to count sometimes to add simple numbers.
Her: “seven plus eight… that’s easy… seven plus eight is… three.” (this is just said to stall).
Me: “Is that your answer?”
Her: “No. Seven plus eight is… ten. Seven plus eight is four.”
At this point, I either wait until she stops randomly naming numbers and settles upon the correct one with a tone of confidence and finality, or I prompt her with something she can use to figure it out, but never thinks of on her own, like:
Me: “Seven plus eight. Isn’t that a double plus one?” (She knows all her doubles, like 7+7=14.)
Her: “15!” This is said quickly with a tone like, “I had it, Mom!”
When she subtracts, she’s almost always counting. She should have this stuff memorized. This is not a good foundation going into a year which will see the introduction of multiplication. I’m open to suggestion on other ways to work this, since I’m not experienced with pedagogy. For instance, no matter how many times I try to explain the whole trick about adding 9 to a number making it equal 1+one less than the number, like 9+5=14, it never ever sticks. This is exactly why I shouldn’t homeschool.
Anyway, we’ve been working on this intermittently all summer, but we’re laying into it harder now. Less playing Sims2 (which she’s understanding a little too much of now anyway) and more schoolwork! Diddy mao!