Sim had a math lesson yesterday. It was his first one ever. I’ve noticed that lately he’s seemed like he wanted his own school time with Mama, so I thought starting with the very simple math lessons at the beginning of the beginner’s book would be a good fit. He breezed happily through the lesson, which took 10 minutes or so. Hannah and Naomi were very enthusiastic and encouraging, telling him how fun math is (this was from Hannah, who professes to hate math…) and how great it was that he was doing it.
Once the lesson was over, it was like a shark feeding frenzy.
Hannah: Sim, I could be your teacher! How would you like Hannah to teach you?
Naomi: [displaying the clock we’ve been using to teach her to tell time] Sim, what time does this say? No, it’s 7 o’clock. See, you look at where the minute hand is, and if it’s up at the twelve, then you look…
I quickly realized that his dear siblings, in their enthusiasm, would quickly frustrate Sim by offering problems that, at the tender age of three with very little math instruction under his belt, he could not be expected to do. I had to explain this to Naomi in particular. I reminded her that he didn’t actually know how to read numbers yet, so telling time might need to wait a while.
Next thing I knew, Naomi was trying to teach Sim to read numbers.
I think Simeon’s usually happy-go-lucky outlook is going to be a necessary part of his education, if only to stand the intensity of having two very well-meaning and enthusiastic older sisters.
1 comment:
Hahahahaha!
We didn't homeschool but I was totally that older sister. During the summers I would get bored and make worksheets - handwritten worksheets! with illustrations! - for my little sister in any subject that I could think of that I thought she needed to know. I distinctly remember being on a long car trip - I was probably 12 or 13 and she was probably 9 or 10 - trying to teach my sister the state capitols. She still insists that she started learning Spanish "out of self defense."
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