Just procrastinating

Well, kind of taking a break from cleaning and just thought I'd post about other school stuff.

12yo dd is loving Life of Fred! She's made it to the first "bridge" in the book (a little test section--very neatly done because the kids do the first try, if they don't get 9 or 10 out of 10, they correct their mistakes and do the 2nd try; same thing and so it goes for 5 tries, I think, at which point they have to restart with the 1st try if they still haven't gotten it) and was very pleased with herself. I think that means she's done 5 lessons. Now Bob is saying that if he had something fun to do like that, he'd work willingly, too. lol. I'm glad dd is finding it FUN. There are a few things here and there I do have to help her with because she's not done much simple division and never done long division, but other than that, she's enjoying it, feeling capable and I'm seeing her love of math come back. She doesn't remember ever having a love of math, but I remember the little 3-, 4- and 5yo she was who loved counting and adding and subtracting, who could tell me rather quickly at the age of 5 that 9+9 was 18. "How'd you figure it out so quickly?" A self-discovered strategy that she explained something like this: "10 + 10 is 20, and there's one less of each, so it's 18." We've already been discussing plans for next school year and she's already decided she wants to continue with Life of Fred. If she keeps going the rate she's going, I may have to get the 3rd book for fall!

Other than that... Ds played a neat little tune this morning on his guitar. I asked him if Bob had taught him it. No. "You just made it up?" "Yes," with an embarrassed little smile. Very cool.

That reminds me: dd has said she really wants to learn guitar next school year. I'm thinking it would be a great summertime learning activity! Ds has his own guitar and I have a concert-size guitar dd would be able to play. I've had it for a few years now (my mom got it in the early 70s, hasn't played it since the 70s, so got it fixed up a bit and gave it to me as a present as I love musical instruments) and have been wanting to learn, too, so guitar is one of the plans for this June, July and August. She also really wants to make more progress on German, which is another thing I can easily incorporate into our days this summer--if I make a point of it!