A Centimeter of Hate

It's the last week of school and things are going haywire here.   My daughter is rebelling at anything and everything, saying she doesn't have to do it and/or the other students are doing something different.   There are too many meetings, and my favorite two sayings, "It's not fair!"  followed by, "Well, sadly for me..."

It is a light week for the children but they have work they must do.   My daughter has a memory book to work on—something she thinks is wholly unfair and unreasonable for the teachers to ask her to do.   We tried to explain it was her, writing to the future, older version of herself.   Writing real answers would be special to you later when you read it.

I went downstairs to listen to my son's final presentation for the year over a Zoom call with my daughter peeking around the corner, listening some from time to time.   When his report was over I found out my daughter hated her teacher.  Hated her.   What in the world, I asked?

Here's the math worksheet for the day, distilled down to text that can be represented in braille (which is under the print version for us).  Look at the line of colons—that's where my daughter got mad.

How was she going to measure that line when she had no idea how long a centimeter was?   She thought it was about the same length as a foot, but she wasn't sure.  She remained angry at her teacher as well as me while I worked on a tactile ruler to demonstrate it to her.   I told her to hold until I got this finished:



And just like you'd explain to a child via a video or drawing, I showed my child how rulers are used by starting at the top left and going right.   She counted up to six inches.   Then I had her turn the ruler 180 degrees and told her those were centimeters with a higher line after each five.   She figured out fifteen centimeters is a little less than six inches.

She asked if she could keep the ruler.   I told her absolutely but to know I made the measurements quickly and we might have to restick in the future.

The Big Boy Update:  My son presented all about Norway to his class and teachers today.  On the Zoom meeting, he had the country over his shoulder and was able to point to it a time or two in the presentation.   He did very well today presenting on Norway.   My son is almost a fourth-grader.   Boggles the mind, time, and all.   Ask any parent and they'll tell you the same thing.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter started another audiobook yesterday.   She turns into raging monster child when you interrupt her audiobook, just like her brother does when we interrupt him from screens.  I'm glad she's listening to stories.   We're trying to pick higher rated ones. ,