![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ana's first words to me this morning:
Oct. 5th, 2014 06:16 pmI hate you, and I hate your breakfast.
She didn't even know what I'd made for breakfast yet! It was all downhill from there.
Casualties: 1 glass skillet lid, shattered on the floor
1 benadryl for me (hives)
1 aspirin for Ana (headache)
She eventually calmed down enough to get through two pages of math. Then we took a reading break, and I decided, as it was mostly calm, to struggle on through history. We were actually doing this set of lessons, Lesson 2. (PDF)
So we read the handouts together. So far, so good. We look at the pictures. No problem! We identify Ukraine on the map, and connect the location to current events, because why the heck not. (I get a little jolt, incidentally, every time I read a news article that mentions the Tigris. It's like it's in this little compartment in my mind labelled "Fertile Crescent" and it ceased to exist in real time about 6,000 years ago!)
Then I look at the discussion questions, and we've basically already discussed this during our examination of the various handouts, so I ask the kids to just write down two paragraphs, one on what conclusions they can draw from this evidence and the other on things they don't know about these people (because of lack of evidence).
OMG! It's so unfair! It's mean! It's too hard! She ALWAYS has to do MORE work than EVA! AND her work is HARDER. At this point I try some logic - they're doing the exact same assignments! If anything, it's too hard for her sister! Oh, she says, but she had more math! First of all, that's not even true today, Eva did three pages to Ana's two, and she had word problems instead of straightforward exponents like Ana, but secondly - math's over, kiddo!
So she stormed off. Now Eva comes in, crying, she can't do it. I say "You can't think of anything that you know about these people?"
Ana: Wait, what? Is THAT what you're asking us to do?
Me: Uh... yeah? What did you think?
Ana: Something else! Something HARDER!
Casualty: $4 on ice cream. Because boy, did I ever need it.
Somehow it turned into 6 pm when I wasn't looking. The day dragged on forever, but I still don't know how it became 6:00. Dinner's not even started. Geez.
She didn't even know what I'd made for breakfast yet! It was all downhill from there.
Casualties: 1 glass skillet lid, shattered on the floor
1 benadryl for me (hives)
1 aspirin for Ana (headache)
She eventually calmed down enough to get through two pages of math. Then we took a reading break, and I decided, as it was mostly calm, to struggle on through history. We were actually doing this set of lessons, Lesson 2. (PDF)
So we read the handouts together. So far, so good. We look at the pictures. No problem! We identify Ukraine on the map, and connect the location to current events, because why the heck not. (I get a little jolt, incidentally, every time I read a news article that mentions the Tigris. It's like it's in this little compartment in my mind labelled "Fertile Crescent" and it ceased to exist in real time about 6,000 years ago!)
Then I look at the discussion questions, and we've basically already discussed this during our examination of the various handouts, so I ask the kids to just write down two paragraphs, one on what conclusions they can draw from this evidence and the other on things they don't know about these people (because of lack of evidence).
OMG! It's so unfair! It's mean! It's too hard! She ALWAYS has to do MORE work than EVA! AND her work is HARDER. At this point I try some logic - they're doing the exact same assignments! If anything, it's too hard for her sister! Oh, she says, but she had more math! First of all, that's not even true today, Eva did three pages to Ana's two, and she had word problems instead of straightforward exponents like Ana, but secondly - math's over, kiddo!
So she stormed off. Now Eva comes in, crying, she can't do it. I say "You can't think of anything that you know about these people?"
Ana: Wait, what? Is THAT what you're asking us to do?
Me: Uh... yeah? What did you think?
Ana: Something else! Something HARDER!
Casualty: $4 on ice cream. Because boy, did I ever need it.
Somehow it turned into 6 pm when I wasn't looking. The day dragged on forever, but I still don't know how it became 6:00. Dinner's not even started. Geez.
