Random

[hobgoblinn]

First: cool map. Shows where I have been.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.


Next, Wee Hob has an old friend back. His 7th grade math book. As he failed this final quarter due to an epic failure to Turn In His Homework, he will get the joy of doing some summer work. The school isn't demanding it, and in fact their plan is to put him back in basic math in the fall, but I've seen his IQ scores. Putting him back into a situation where he can coast, be bored and antagonize slower kids with his insufferable know it all ness is not the best plan I've ever heard.

So I took him out for Ice Cream yesterday (to make the entire discussion more tolerable) and we discussed what he liked about his math book (turning it in at year's end) and why he chose puke green for a book cover for it, and how we were going to tackle the material and why.

In the end we decided (since not doing anything was not an option) that he would start by taking the unit tests in the book. Anything lower than a 93% means he has to do the chapter tests to see where his problem is, and so on. The really fun part? Math challenged mama hobgoblinn also has to do the work as a check. I figure we're unlikely to get the same Wrong answer. And if I do badly, I have to do the work and he has to do stuff to check me. Plus be insufferable at me that he knows it and I don't.

At the end of the summer we turn in the book and his notebook and ask for a placement test, and hope he passes it and impresses them enough that they let him into the regular classes. I think this tandem homework thing is going to have to carry over into the school year, as apparently whatever I'm doing is not working. Though I'm still convinced he's doing a lot of the work and losing it, as he is so disorganized.


That's really all for now. I have ch9 of In Loco nearly ready for beta and a start on 10. But I really need to get cracking on Summer of Giles here. Soon.

Comments

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

You are not only a good mom, you deserve a nom for sainthood. Helping with math homework was one of the parenting jobs I hated the most. (I am ridiculously happy they are now both better than me at the subject and know it, so they don't even ask.)

[clavally.livejournal.com]

I only wish my mother had been as invested in me as you are in your son!

Which math is it? Pre-Algebra? Algebra? I was pretty decent at that kind of thing. It was just Calculus that messed me up a bit. I'd be happy to offer help if ya need it.

If only I lived closer I'd offer to tutor him! Odd being only the next state over and still so far away, huh?

Anyway, good luck with it!

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, the trend now seems to be toward introducing things I remember being relegated to high school geometry and the like really early and giving the kids practice at all the formulae for area, volume, perimeter and the like every year. My guess is it gets them drilled in what they need for standardized tests. Wish they'd done that when I was in school. My math SAT wasn't completely pathetic, but by the time I came to take my GRE embarrassing doesn't begin to cover it.

As to living closer, well, you obviously need to move to sunny Cincinnati. C'mon. you can be underemployed anywhere, right? Look at me....

Thanks for the well wishes. I, too, ground to a halt at calculus. But Wee Hob's strange mind may find that easy-- his dad was good at it. I think he's mostly going to love lording it over me that I struggle with it (and hey, I can struggle a Lot more than is strictly necessary if it helps him out.)

[clavally.livejournal.com]

True about being underemployed, but here, at least, I can live with family!

Although, I keep thinking about going to Tenn on vacation some time in the future and I have this mental post-it note in my brain reminding me to arrange to meet you when I do.

At this rate, it might not be for another two years, though. *headdesk*

The opposite happened with me and standardized tests. I took the ACT in high school and then again 10 years later and my math score was higher the second time than my original composite score. Guess I can't complain about that.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. We will definitely have to meet up. You'll probably take 71 S to Cincinnati; exit at 471S and you're about 4 exits from my current house. I'll still be somewhere close barring major employment disaster, as I want Wee Hob to stay with this school district and all. At any Rate, don't lose that mental post-it note. Tennessee is cool and we are on the way.

My couch is currently a series of canvas camp chairs in various states of disrepair, but my floor is comfy. And I have a cot I use when camping with the lads. As the ground is so Not.