An Accomplishment

Happy February, everyone!

Today, four of our kids took final exams in their current math books and passed with flying colors.  That means they all get to progress to the next book in the Math-U-See series.  I'm very pleased and proud of our kids.

H is going from Gamma to Delta.  Z is going from Beta to Gamma.  J is going from Alpha to Beta.  O is going from Primer to Alpha.  (The oldest two boys went through their Gamma and Beta book twice because they just weren't getting it.)

I also love that we can go with our own schedule in subjects as long as we see them continue to grow better in their subjects.  Many of our kids really struggle in math, so we stopped worrying about trying to keep up with public school levels and starting books at the beginning of the school year.  We're able to tailor the pace to each child's needs.

Besides, the way Math-U-See works, the levels are not exactly like other math books.  They mix in some algebra at every level, so comparing their level of mathematics understanding with that of other kids is just really challenging.

When I gave J her math work for today, she said, "I don't want to do all this math today." 

I said, "J, this is to demonstrate to me that you understand everything in this book so you can move to the next one."

She said, "But that's hard math.  I don't want to do hard math."

I said, "Well, if you won't do this one worksheet, I guess we'll have to go back to the beginning of Alpha and learn it all over again."

She said, "I can't do that!  It'll be too easy because I already know all that stuff."

I said, "Then do this one worksheet and show me you know all that stuff and we won't have to start Alpha all over again."

Then she was charged up and received a perfect score on her final exam.  She's ready for "hard math," but we'll take it one lesson at a time and she'll never realize it's so different.

It's all in how I phrase it.

Congratulations to my children.  I love you!