Today I found the right motivation to teach Small some more maths. I informed him that if he could count his own money out of the pile, he could have the same pocket money at Big gets (£1 a week) rather than the 50p he’s been getting. It took an hour, but he counted out £10 (we’ve been rather remiss at doling out pocket money lately). Along the way he recognised that 20 x 5 is the same as 5 x 20, and Big sitting alongside side said in a voice of amazement, so it is!
We then set off into town to buy craft stuff (see below for motivation) and ended up at a second hand games store, where he spent nearly all his money on a PS1 with two games (bloke in shop did it all for £15 and threw in a memory card too. Well impressed). All of that led to some very frantic BKing and googling when we got back home and I couldn’t get the (on loan) TV/ DVD combi to display anything from the games machine. Urgh.
Big, by way of comparison, is desperate for a Nintendo DS. She has decided she is going to make things to sell, so beware anyone who sees us over the next few weeks, she is likely to have a little goody bag of home made items complete with price tags. I am requiring these to be up to a decent standard – so far she’s working on little handloomed (as in circular weaving loom) purses in rather lovely mixed pinks, and she’s also got little frames for embossed pictures, and thread for making bead bracelets. Must investigate the thread tonight – it is quite thin, but I think doubled over it will work fairly well.
Actually, as and when she’s got anything ready, I’ll blog some pictures and if you or your offspring like, you can place pre-orders 😀
I am encouraging and supporting this mercenary behaviour not least because I think she’s learning all sorts from it – she’s having to plan things to make, she’s having to look at costs and profit margins, it’s encouraging her to stick with projects (something she wouldn’t learn from my crafting hobbies :blush:) and so on. Plus the actual crafting skills, which are very calming for her. Not sure what we’re going to do about increasing a market for her, will have to think about that one carefully.
So that’s been today. I went into work for a while and didn’t achieve very much, so I might go and sit in a corner with my assignment for a while. Wrt Decisions, decisions, thanks for your input so far. I am doing some studying, granted it’s not at OU standard, but I am wondering whether I might be better off concentrating on rattling through Montessori courses this term and picking up OU in February. We shall see, I may well waver several more times before September 5th.
Leave a Reply