Homework

Unfortunately, no book reports on Peter Rabbit.  Which I could do easily.

Both Ane and Tad are knee-deep in math homework right now.  Math is probably my least favorite subject for homework.  Ane has a mental block when it comes to math when she’s learning new concepts.  Tad has no concept of numbers equaling an actual quantity. He can count with one-to-one correspondence perfectly, but in order to do any kind of simple math, he has to actually see a quantity in front of him.  I have to use an abacus with him in order to do his homework.

Ane, on the other hand, just finished a unit on estimating (which she complained loudly about) and has now moved into a money unit.  The worksheets are pretty intensively focused on making the kids think about the actual value of coins and what different combinations can be used to make change.

Needless to say, she got her mental block up and decided that she couldn’t do this math.

Her mother disagreed.

So, we’re using actual money as a counting prop – kept in an old medicine bottle that must have come from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa’s house during an Easter egg hunt – in order to give her something to manipulate as she works through the whole idea of making change.

But right now, I know that I have about an hour’s worth of homework every afternoon between the two kids.  Tad often has letter/writing worksheets, but he can do that all by himself without my help.  Ane is sometimes assigned 20 minutes of reading.  But lately, we haven’t been so lucky.  And both kids want me standing over their shoulders to do their homework.  Tad actually needs the help and direction, but Ane just needs to be reminded to stay on task.  Oh, and don’t forget that Rerun is usually awake by this time and wanting my attention, too.  Or at least, wanting a seat at the table to continually bug his brother and sister.

And it takes a lot to keep the homework table from devolving into this.  And in the car.  We’ve had to adjust the seating in the car again to avoid that.

I know Tad will probably need my help for a looooong time when it comes to math, unless he has a mental breakthrough (and we just did an introduction to subtraction, God help me).  But I’m kind of hoping Ane can work past her attitude problem and at least make an effort without me cracking a whip over her shoulder all the time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2012 at 1:28 am and is filed under Autism Adventures, Children, Mommyhood, School Days.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.