Comment On This Post, Please

The past while, I've been experimenting with keeping a Facebook Page for my blog. I thought it might make it easier for folks to see my content, if they could enjoy "one stop shopping" in their Facebook feed. Thing is, Facebook seems determined to destroy the usefulness of the feed. They won't show us the things our friends post much of the time, they filter away a lot of the content of pages we "like", and apparently they have plans to make it go from
bad to worse. I'm seriously considering abandoning my Page. It feels like a lot of work for... not much. And what little exposure there is, they plan to take away.

So, what do you think? Do you see my stuff on Facebook? Do you read in some kind of feed? Stop by the blog itself from time to time? What do you like? 

Big Fish

I went into the bathroom and took over bath duty so the Daddy could go do something with Hero. I saw cute wrinkley feet in the tub and this was our conversation:

Me: Hi, my little fish!

Dragon: I'm not a little fish!

Me: No? What are you, then?

Dragon: I'm a BIG fish!!

Fluent in Math

I ran across this math article the other day, and it had some really great ideas. I particularly like the counting from different places and in both directions.

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Most parents begin by teaching children to count from 1 to 10, then 1 to 20, and so on up to 100. Sometimes we neglect to teach them to count fluently from numbers other than 1.

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That's me. We did that. And we didn't really do any other kind of counting; I just never thought of it.

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Sometimes we neglect to teach them to count fluently from numbers other than 1. Then when they begin addition, they have problems because they have never counted from a number other than 1. So they start at 1 and count to the first number and then continue to count for the second number. To be fluent counters, we must also teach them to count from a number to a number.

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And that describes one of the few things that Hero struggled with in learning addition. He still doesn't like to "count on." I'm wondering if doing a little counting practice from numbers other than number one would help the situation. We all also need to increase our fluency in counting in Japanese as well, so this will be happening in two languages. I need to learn to say, "count forward" and "count backward" in Japanese too. It's always interesting to try to teach a new thing in Japanese, since that usually means that I'm learning it right along-side the kids, or maybe one step in front! There's a bunch of counting projects for both English and Japanese in this article. I think that it'll be keeping us busy for a while, between the two languages. Hero will do other stuff in addition, but Dragon and I will probably focus on counting in a whole bunch of different kinds of ways, and in both languages for the next little while. I think I need to find my big 100s chart and hang it back up.


P.S. I'm so glad you stopped by to read about the adventures at our house! If you want more, "Like" my blog on Facebook to get posts (and the articles n things I wish I had time to blog about) in your feed. Wanna see all the projects and ideas that I may or may not get around to? Follow me on Pinterest. Thanks for stopping by!

Spiderwebs

"I've got spiderwebs! They can shoot at Bad Guys and not at Good Guys!"

A Little Elbow Grease

The kids really want to get Mincraft. Really. And I'm cool with that. But it costs money and is definitely an "extra." So there's work involved. They each need to do 3 jobs to earn it.

I'm not the best housekeeper on the block, though hopefully I'm not the worst (anymore), so there's plenty of jobs. Hero chose the bathroom. There's some paint from the time Tigress got ahold of some paints we thought were taken care of, and ended up with black paint in her hair, and now that paint is mixed with the soap scum, and it's really pretty gross. Hero chose the bathroom, so we're working on that. And the paint/soap scum gunk isn't very easy to get off (though I've cleaned worse), and he's learning about elbow grease- the idiom and the experience. Even after his little brother and I lent a hand, it was still a big job. He did really well. 

Six Months

Six months ago, I started teaching the kids Japanese. It's a huge project, learning a language. I have no idea how long it's going to take. A long time. Partly because I only speak a little. Though I'm getting better. I started a set of flash cards in Sticky Study, the world's most awesome flash card app, a list of words I use around the house talking to the kids. A lot of the original words on my list centered around the bath room, actually, because Dragon was potty training at the time, and the repetitive nature of the task was perfect for helping me practice the phrases and helping him get used to the sound of Japanese.

One of the reasons that Sticky Study is so great is that it keeps stats for me. Tells me stuff. Like that it's been 6 months, and that in that time, I've learned about 250 new words. The really cool thing, though, is that it seldom takes very long. I flip a few cards while I'm waiting, most often. I am amazed at how the little bits add up. The scriptures tell us that by small and simple things, great things can be accomplished. I've loved that for a long time-- that's why I call my blog "Baby Steps". But it's really quite remarkable to see it all graphed out. 

I just added a bunch more words again, which is why the graph falls off at the end there. The flash cards start out red, and progress through the colors to green as I answer correctly several times. So you can see pretty clearly on the graph where I've added big bunches of words. And I'm forever adding them onesy-twosy as well. 

I think the start of learning a language is probably the hardest part. My kids seem like they're doing pretty well with that. Dragon is probably nearly as comfortable counting in Japanese as he is in English. Hero has been doing the podcast lessons I prefer, and is making some progress. I can't tell what is going on behind Tigress's big blue eyes; she only has about 8 words, and they're all English so far, but I probably speak the most Japanese to her, so it will be interesting to see if any of her first words, here while I'm keeping track, are Japanese. 

It can be easy to feel like we're not making any progress, even though there is a lot of effort going into this. But that's not the case. I'm learning new words and phrases, and so are the kids. It's pretty exciting, really.