MY frustration

Here is my frustration, perhaps I have not been patient enough, perhaps I have gone the wrong way around to teaching math, perhaps there is an underlying problem I am not seeing whatever it is I need to get it fixed.
For our 3rd yr hs math has yet again become a problem with Conner. I don't understand but it's as if just the thought of math gives him a completely different personality. Today is a good example.
His lesson today covered Place Value, yes simple basic place value. Here are his problems

Write each in standard form
4000+500+60+9
400,000+300+50
60,000,000+3,000,000+4000,000+5000+7
1,000,000,000+200,000,000+50,000,000+300+9

Write in expanded form
8998
15,243
672,115
700,946
13,004,205
2,005,940,000

That's it.
Here is how it went. Immediately upon opening the book to the page required he asked for help.
He then needed help for each and every problem until the last two at which point he was finally getting it. But if I were to ask him to do this tomorrow I'm not sure I wouldn't need to help him again.
We tried Saxon but he didn't like it and didn't use it long enough although I think it would help him immensely. He is using K-12 grade 5 Math. The problem here is that when he gets to a quiz he won't remember half of it.
It is sooooooo frustrating sitting there with him helping him through every single problem. It's as if he can't correlate moving from a small number to a bigger number doing the same thing. It is frustrating for the two other boys because if they need help they generally have to wait for me to finish with conner. So I hop between kids although the other two don't require nearly as much help. Basically just Colin and he gets upset when I am constantly helping Conner and he has to wait for me to be done. I don't make him wait for the whole lesson just one problem but it seems that it takes forever.

I saw another math program called Teaching Textbooks where it comes with CD's that gives lectures, practice problems and goes over every single problem. So if you miss number 16 in lesson 23 you can pop in the CD and it will show you how to do that problem. I think that would help him alot. I also like Saxon for him as it goes over a little of everything to keep up on learned stuff so you don't forget how to do it. I don't know if I should switch but if I have to take another year of this much frustration I'm not doing much to help him in math. I can't do that to him or to myself, it's very wearing.
This is one example. For clarification this happens 3-5 days out of the 5 days of school. He is at the point where I think he thinks he can't so he asks for help before he even tries. That in itself frustrates me as I would like to see him at least try. I obviously need to do something to build his confidence in this area. I just don't know how. I also need to find a comprehensive math program that works for him. Again I'm not sure what that is but I have an inkling that it's not the math he is using now.

Vanessa

Story Maker's Contest

I just read about this from a local group but perhaps your local PBS is having the same contest too.
PBS is sponsoring a writting contest. This is for middle level grades -6,7 and 8th. It is a short story contest for young authors. Stories must be submitted by Oct. 10th 2008. Stories will be judged on creativity, originality and storytelling. The story must be a minimun of 700 words with a max being 1,000. Test must be Times New Roman 12 pt, double spaced. You can count words like a, an and the in the count.There will be prizes to the top three winners in each grade level.
I love this idea. It's a neat way to get kids to write and have new experiences with their stories instead of the same stuff like showing mom and dad and perhaps grandma and grandpa. It makes the story bigger. I have at least one story teller in my house that I know can write a good story.
You can check out the contest and rules and stuff here

Story Maker's Contest

Vanessa

The state fair

My boys with funnel cake and and elephant ear.

MmMMM fair food. Can you smell it?

Yesterday we went to the state fair and had a fantastic time. We looked at the 4-h exhibits and the kids got really interested in alot of the things they could do through this program. We saw cakes kids as young as made that were decorated nicer than I could do, amazing what those kids did. There were rocket's and wood projects, leather work and sewing and all sorts of cooking. Colin was really interested in the cooking/baking stuff and I think he wants to enter that for sure. He also saw something I didn't know they did Lego's! He really wants to do that. Conner liked the leather work and the pies , he wants to enter a pecan pie! Austin liked the rockets and the guns. We will have to see if we can make all this work into our hs. I'm sure it will be a great experience.



They loved all the animals especially the baby animals and we discovered Conner was really good at roping. He only did this one other time before and that was at the last fair last yr. Now he wants to join the ranks of the rodeo folk, hmmm? In this part of the fair I happened upon little newspapers called "Colorado Reader". There were about 3 different ones I found each with it's own topic. These were all produced by the Department of Agriculture. I checked out their website and found they had done these readers monthly since 2005. I think I am going to see about getting them for our hs. They are really neat you can check them out yourself here



Department of Agriculture

There are a bunch of clickable links under Resouces. I would tell you all about them but that would take forever. From the little I have looked at this is an amazing resource that will surley add lots of fun into our hs.

Colorado Reader

these are the readers and it is divided by subject and everything.



We also had a great time with the rest of the fair. The boys caught up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while and we saw a sea lion show and a tiger show. We had fun delicous fair food, I mean would it really be the fair without funnel cake? We walked alot and I milked a cow, it was so easy. A baby cow tried to suck Austin's finger and we saw a baby chick crack it's egg although the boys were too impatient to see it get the shell apart and come out.

Sand sculpture. this yrs theme is Politic's.

Sand shack. This ride is reminds me of "Grease" at the end.

"Tell me about it, stud"

Conner on Bumber Cars

That big swing dragon thing

The boys with a Robot that walked around

Colin eats his turkey leg, mmmmmm we love those turkey legs.

The sea lion show.

Conner ropes him a cow?? He did so well they didn't believe him when he said this was only his second time doing this.

One of the magnificent creatures at the Tiger show

Vanessa

Brilliant Weblog Award!!!

I have been awarded the Brilliant Weblog Award. Me , crazy huh. I haven't really been blogging for long and most times worry about what I put on my post's. I really don't know what to say when Kathy gave me this award. Would thanks suffice?? Hardly but until i come up with something better thank you from the bottom of my heart. Kathy put's amazing stuff on her blog, she recently moved to typad and is in transition but the stuff she comes up with is just fabulous.


Now it's on to the hard stuff. Choosing 7 blogs to get this Award. This is difficult at best as there are so many wonderful blogs out there, but here goes nothing.

Mrs. Darling of course-

This woman has an ability to wirte amazing posts about ordinary life. I have been reading her blog for some time and am completly hooked. I need a meeting or something to get help, lol. Really truly she is the 1st blog I read just about anytime I go blog hunting.

Randi-

I have just started reading this blog but I just love it. There are cute little crafty things she does and she shares great pictures of her family that makes you feel like you are there enjoying it all. Randi also shares neat recipe's , frugal things . She is a woman after my own heart.

Shari-

The amazing hs'ing ideas that are here are worth coming back to again and again. There are reviews of products that are very helpful and around the home stuff that is also very helpful. It's a great stop to see if there is anything you may want to add to your hs.

Angela-

This is such a great blog to look at it is sooo preety and fun. Angela also shares great reivews on products, great pictures, fun family insights and more. Beyond that Angela shares some neat pictures and family ancedotes.

Damama

Well this blog just cracks me up. It's a life in general blog and when I need a good laugh I check to see what Damama has come up with. Check out her Aug 7th and 4th posts I got 21 kids and laughed at the muppets for some time.

Kim

Kim is great and puts alot of wonderful links and stuff on her blog. She does her hs similar to mine with lots of lapbooks and unit studies with various other things to add to it. She also likes to read the same book seiries I do. It's fun to see what she has going on.

Learning by Living

Another neat hs blog with lapbooks. She recently shared great organizing ideas and pictures and to do lists to go with it. A lady after my own heart.

For the nominees here are the rules:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

So there are my fav's. I hope to see some more of yours too. It was a hard decision and I really wanted to add a frugal blog and a scrapbooking blog but then again mabey I will just post about them some other time.

Vanessa

I'm Sexy!!!

Austin took a shower and I commented his hair was getting long. He has these cute curls and I said something here is how it went.

Me: Look Austin has curls

Austin: I know their sexy!!

Me: (laughing) Hmmmm?!?

Vanessa

Learning by Osmosis

This morning I woke up and came into my living room and Conner was asleep on the floor with a book. I know I tucked him into his bed the night before but appearently he woke up and came up to read but was more tired then he thought.

How on earth did he fall asleep like this?

He looks like he is studying.

Just plain cute

NO moment in Conner's life would be complete without his Cat.

Vanessa

Park day fun

On one of the last remaining park days I brought my camera in high hopes and was not disapointed. The boys played, we had a picnic lunch and the mom's had a great time chatting. It is really nice to be among so many nice moms with similar ideas. The icing on the cake here is that there seem to be many boys the same ages as my boys which is just fantastic since I have had he hardest time finding that for my boys.

Conner has homemade lunchables with his favorite mustard. German hot mustart that is quite spicey and clear's up sinuses, really it does. Conner even said so.
Colin, Conner, Austin and Kathy. Thanks Kathy for sharing your blanket among many other things.
Alot of the kids play on this playground.
Colin is up in this tree practically at the top.
See him, I made him get down as other kids were wanting to go up and I needed him to set a good example.
A toad the boys found. I think he is adorable but I am kooky that way.

The boys thought is was funny to put the little guy on their dogs head. I thought it was a great picture although moments before I said they should leave the poor thing alone. Hmmm I have many double standards.

The dog was really good about it although he did chase the toad around the grass for as long as the boys let him. I'm sure he loved his new toy???

Vanessa

1st Day of School -our way

Our 1st yr of hs we went on a field trip the first day to the botanical gardens in Denver. We had a great time and it was fun, so it became a tradition. This yr we went to Castle Rock to go Rock hounding near Devil's head. After going all over the mountain on rocky terrain my GPS found Devil's head. Thank goodness too because the directions in the rock hounding book weren't all that great. The dig site was just a mile from this point but we wanted to see what Devil's head was all about first. It said it was only a 1.4 ml hike there I thought no problem. What was I thinking.

Conner's non appropriate clothing and shoes. He had a good time anyway

The hike was great but it was misting and Conner was not dressed appropriately for the weather or the hike. I make a habit of having the kids in charge of their own clothes and if they dress inappropriately the hope is that they learn from this and pay attention to the activity and weather. Obviously I need to take over on this as my boys are still on occasion not paying attention. Anyway. The hike was great. How I missed being on a hike since we really haven't gone on a good hike since moving here over a yr ago, how sad.

We made it all the way to the top of Devils head the only problem is that all that fog was not letting us see the site properly although it was neat to see it that way all on it's own too, know what I mean. There were several clearing's between trees where I thought if it weren't for the fog this would be a amazing overlook not to mention picture. But the fog gave it it's own mystical quality that was interesting, but I still wanted to see all of Castle Rock below me. Wouldn't that have turned out great?

You can click on these resources here. The first is the gov't ran site telling a little about Devil's head and the second is some great pictures taken by some guy that went there. The pictures are great and now I want to go back on a clear day.

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_national_forest/co/hik_pi3.htm
http://www.stevegarufi.com/devilshead.htm

My boys just a bit after the start of the trail at a bridge, Conner is a troll hmmm I saw that in a cartoon sometime didn't I?Great rock formations

Isn't this cool? There were several rocks that had this sort of cut out portion where water collected.
We found Raspberry bushes, my boys favorite snack on a hike is wild grown raspberries.
Colin looks through to see if he can find some ripe ones, most were not ready!
Here is what we found, yummmo!!!!!
Another bush,more raspberry hunting. Once he started I couldn't drag him away

On the trail.
Austin inspects a rock formation
Conner does the Crane impression. LOL!!!
Colin found this plant interesting and was so cute about showing it to us. He talked about it in art language that he loves to use and still impresses me.
A pine cone as big as your head is worth a picture

You can see all the mist in all the pictures, it was quite brisk

We thought this was devil's Head, turned out to be the halfway point.
Reading an interpretive sign about the woman who found this site to look for fire's
My cute boys on a rock that looks "like a lounge or couch mom"

Austin found a little cave there.
Can you see it?

The fire lookout post on top of the mountain at the end of the trail.
Stairs you must take to get to the lookout.
As you know I'm a huge fan of signage.
Her is the story of the lady and the start of the fire lookout post.

What a great day, minus the weather. We stopped at the Castle Rock outlet's because Colin really had been wanting a garlic press. Honest I'm not even sure I have any recipe's that I can use the thing but he saw the chef's on Food Network use it all the time so we apparently had an unfit kitchen without it. We were also hungry so we stopped at Red Robin to eat and I found out they got rid of my favorite hamburger (pot roast burger), I was so bummed. Colin loooovvveed his Salmon burger and talked like a chef "The dressing and the grilled salmon make a good combination, the flavors blend so great". HUH???? Where does he come up with this stuff? Oh yeah food network. Austin had an egg on his but it was good and I had these cool garlic fries that we thought we could make at home, everyone loved them. Finally Conner loved our nacho appetizer so much he joined the cooking competition we are going to have by making them.

I think this is a great way to start our school yr. It is so much more fun then separating out supplies like ps. So we are going to start and end the school yr on this note, Field trip time!!!

Vanessa

Conner's Cake

I meant to post the pictures of Conner's cake and presents and well got busy planning the school yr. But I finally got all the pictures on my computer. We are still going to take him golfing as part of his present so that will be there too

Here is the cake I made. It was a ice cream cake the recipe was Baked Alaska. I didn't know that was an ice cream cake.

I am sort of proud of the way it turned out.

Conner, Derek(Austin's friend) and Austin getting ready for cake.

Conner with his cake before cutting.

Conner gets a slice and so does everyone. Happy Birthday Conner!!!

There is a layer of coffee, vanilla and then coffee again. With a meringue topping and a brownie crust. How yummy is that. No wonder Conner picked it as his birthday cake.

Vanessa