The Power of Imagination! ;D

Has anyone here read Llama Llama Mad at Mama?? It's a wonderful story about a little Llama who HATES going to the grocery store and has a temper tantrum. His Mama is a really AP Mama and she sorts it all out. This book has saved Jack's tiny heiny more than once and this past Tuesday was no exception although THIS time what we came up with was, in my humble opinion, nothing short of genius!! ;D Jack and I were alone in SUPER TARGET!!! ( dun duh duh duuuuun!!!! ) and we were doing OK until I started to check out sun visors and got into the "compare and contrast" mode that I am likely to get into if I am considering buying anything a) I may not really NEED and b) that costs more than $5 !! Jack took off running and came back with a tub of Ice Cream. Peanut Butter Chocolate Caramel Swirl or some such flavor! Now, Jack had NOT been a very pleasant boy all morning but on the way to the store we had listened to NPR's classical music and he fell asleep in a flash. Having had a nap he was a lot more personable and I ALMOST got the ice cream. It was super cheap BUT it was super CHEAP! I made the mistake of checking out the ingredients ( yes, I'm one of THOSE shoppers....! ) and put it hastily back on the shelf. Jack took off again a while later and returned bearing a large container of Cottage Cheese. Hmm... I asked him if he knew what Cottage Cheese IS and he indicated his uncertainty. We returned that to the shelves too. I began to get the notion that possibly Jack wasn't enjoying this shopping trip as perhaps he might, so I came up a cunning plan...!!! We would PRETEND to shop!!! ;D Every time Jack saw something he wanted to buy he would PRETEND to put it in the cart!!! We picked out juice, cheese, puddings, pies, cakes, pizzas, toys, games, flowers, candy.... so much stuff that we couldn't see around the top of the cart and Jack had to help me push!!!! He helped unload all the pretend stuff at the checkout and the checkout lady was amazed at all we had purchased!!! I was pretty pleased at the price!! 'D Jack helped me push the cart back to the van and helped me unload all the pretend groceries into the trunk!!

Happy Jack = Happy Mama.....!!

Genius I tell ya, Genius. !! ;D

Who's afraid of Long Division!?!? :D

Do YOU know what 12 billion, 984 million, 635 thousand, 786 divided by 7 is?!?!?! :D Jessie does!!! :D LOL!! We'd been working on long division for a few days on and off and Jessie HATED it. She had decided she was a numb skull and would actually cry in frustration about it. Poor lamb. :( I tried all sorts of things including using pretty colors and virtual pies, counting blocks and imaginary apples, but to no avail. It just wouldn't seem to stick..... until now!! I remembered the Living Math forum on Yahoo groups. I used to get their mail every day ( that's a LOT of math mail for a non math geek like myself...) and I distinctly remember seeing an enormous math problem the moderator had given her daughter to work on. I realised that Jessie's problem was simply a lack of repetition! The long division problems she was attempting were not long enough!! If they are too short her brain has to flit from one problem to the next without being allowed time to absorb the process. I wrote out an enormous long division problem for her and told her not to panic. She used her multiplication chart to help her out and away she went. She did balk initially, but soon found she was getting the hang of it and you haven't SEEN excited until your daughter leaps up and down squealing with pride and delight at mastering such a seemingly impossible challenge!!! Natually she begged for more!! :D I had to tell her I wouldn't write her ANY MORE huge questions last night and she had to go to bed and rest but I promised I would write more in the morning... sure enough the girl was still in her nightie and not even fed yet when she came to me, pen and pencil in hand, begging for another question!!!!

YEEEEE HAAAWWWWW!!!!

So, I guess we don't need to do any more homeschool for another six weeks or so now!! ;D ( Just kidding Mum....!! ) LOL!!!!

Initial attempts with color...



Loooooong division!