Should I Give Colin a Break?

lifted from this website

Now that the kids have settled down for a nap (I hope), I can ruminate on how the kids and I have been doing in homeschool this week.

Karyn loves going over shapes, numbers, and the alphabet. She has even asked me to teach her the letter sounds. I have no fears for her as far as pre-school education goes.

Colin is doing okay as a reader, in fact, far better than I would expect if I had decided he should go to public school. I should probably keep doing what I am doing with him as far as reading goes: flashcards, phonics instruction, and practice. I'm also starting to give more time and practice to lettering neatly and accurately, which Colin is enjoying. However, we seem to have hit a wall as far as progress in arithmetic goes.

I think he just needs a break. During math time, Colin has become so distracted, that he can not seem to focus. He understands the mechanics of single digit addition and subtraction, but his attention roams all over the place and it takes a long time to get even one problem done. However, when I proposed that we take a two week break from math (we've had school over the summer), he got angry. After twenty minutes and having only gotten through three of the ten math problems I assigned for the day, we were exhausted, and I very gently but firmly said we are going to take a break until Monday or Tuesday. Colin immediately dissolved into tears and cried, "I don't want to take a break from math! I don't wanna!"

If he wasn't so heartbroken I would have laughed out loud. I gave him a big, extra long hug, and told him we would still count by fives and tens, and that we would find some math games to play. That calmed him a little, but he still wasn't very happy.

I'm going to look around for some new ideas on practicing single digit addition and subtraction and decide whether we need some changes in the way we approach math. Next week we will come back to the subject fresh and rested... I hope.