Last day of school of First Term 2009

We had a wonderful last day of term last week: Tammy and her family came to our farm for an outing. First we had a lovely picnic on the stoep and then we climbed up the koppie (hill) behind the house. It is not very high or far, but it is quite steep.

Tammy and her brother climbing up the rocks. Since doing water aerobics, Tammy's general muscle tone has improved much and so has her balance and stamina. She climbed up with far greater ease than December last year when they first came to visit.

Tammy's grandmother and her mom.


On top of the world. Tammy still had a fever blister: she had tonsillitis last week. The spare tyre around her waist is slowly but surely getting thinner and thinner.

Ouma Vossie posing with the horse, with brother Shaen and cousin Lee standing by. Tammy has always been fond of horses, so riding had to be included of course. Hendrik was at home, so that worked out well. I wouldn't want to saddle and handle the horses myself.

Tammy on horseback. She has several toy horses. Last year we read "My secret Unicorn". Getting onto the real thing was a little intimidating, but Tammy seemed to really enjoy it.

Big smile before the dismount!

Shaen's turn.

While waiting their turns, the cousins had fun playing with the dogs.

Mommy's turn!

This has been a great term. There has been noteworthy progress in especially the following areas:

• Spelling and ability to "make out" words. Big improvement.
• Pronunciation generally and especially of "long" words like "electricity".
  
• Ability to use multiplication purposefully e.g. every day she has to calculate how many problems or sums she had by adding the amount in a column with the number of columns. (She usually did about 60 sums per day.) After counting and deducting the mistakes, she has to work out the percentage on the calculator. She also converted Rand to Dollars. We will do much more of this as their trip draws close.
• Ability to determine "highest" or "lowest" number.
• Ability to read the thermometer.
• Knowledge of sport (cricket and rugby) and awareness of political parties in South Africa (We have an election coming up.)
• Understanding of the meaning of Easter.
• General fitness and improved muscle tone, coordination and balance

Most noticeable challenges:

• Creative language (Speech and written language).
  
• Adding - this is a bigger problem than multiplication!
  
• To improve her posture
  

Have a Happy Easter. We will be back on 20 April 2009

High School Musical Mania or How parties can promote language.

Hannah Montana is on ice for the time being. Tammy wants a High School Musical party for her 14th birthday next month. She plans a singing competition and quizz on H.S.M. 1. She will ask the questions, but of course she must know the answers as well. I bought her the book, but plan to give it to her on her birthday. In the meantime I "rewrite" it in Tammy English i.e. in words I know, she knows or can make out. For example instead of self-assured, I write confident, instead of vacation resort, I write ski resort, instead of crisp air, I write cold air. I also leave out most of the jargon about basketball that neither she nor I really understand. (Because time is of the essence right now, I do not want to bother too much with "new" words.) After reading, we watch that part on the DVD again and discuss questions. Her vocabulary is expanding rapidly, and expression is miles better, but still a big handicap for her.

Today we watched the eclipse. We made round holes in a sheet of paper and saw the half moon sun shining through the holes. After the eclipse, the sun shining through the holes made full circles again. She wrote about the eclipse in her diary and her homework is to tell her parents what an eclipse is and what we have seen. We practised the sentences a bit in class and I hope she remembers them. She really tries hard.

We also watched cricket. South Africa thrashed Australia! Tammy seems to understand the game much better. We watched a website which gives the score the continuously for a while. We worked out how many balls were left and how many runs S.A. needed to score in order to win. (Multiplication with 6 and subtraction.) We did the last few "unknown" multiplication tables today. (Last part of 7 and 8 times tables). I am looking forward to teach her multiplication problems. Adding with ones and tens is improving steadily - she understands the concept much better now and got 46/50 for her last homework.

There are so many activities we would like to do and so little time. Please pray for us that we will get our priorities right!

The 2 times table

Today Amy surprised me by knowing all the "doubles" from 1 +1 till 25 +25. Multiplication with 2 was easy. I then decided to do division ("splitting"). We had done some "splitting" when we went shopping and saw all the sales ads in the shop windows. Amy had to work out how much items would cost when they advertised 50% off or 1/2 price. "How much would you have to pay if the shirt is marked R100 and it is half price?" It seems that she really understands the concept of 5 =1/2: I think it is because we count money very regularly and she knows that R0.50 is 1/2 a Rand. Anyway, today we divided pegs ("sweets") into 2 "party packs" (rows on the pegboard). It took her a while to grasp, but once she did, we both were ecstatic! We did the sums with physical objects and also on paper, but always, always in sequence i.e. 2 + 2 = 4, 3 + 3 = 6 etc or 2/2 = 1, 4/2= 2 etc. After much practice, she was able to do the sums at random. Her "normal" grade 3 friend visited today and lo and behold, she also had to know the 2 times table and do division. This child is quite clever, but today she was totally confused. The jump from doubling and multiplication to division is a big jump - bigger than teachers seem to realise. Her homework division sums were at random and she really struggled until I forced her to first do a couple of division sums in sequence - also with the pegboard. Finally the light dawned and she understood: If you have to divide 24, you start with what you know i.e. that 20 /2 = 10 and then divide the extra 4 i.e. 4 / 2 = 2 and 10 + 2= 12. Oh!!! What joy sums are if you really understand and if you get enough practice. A row of 12 sums are definitely not enough. I love teaching!
Labels: Multiplication tables