“Well, I think two digit addition has changed its terms since I was girl. I know all about carrying numbers from the ones to the tens place, but regrouping the numbers is new to me,” she answered.
“They really mean the same thing, but the term regrouping appears in our text book and will be on the state test,” I clarified.
“Well, I keep slipping up and using the old term when he is doing homework. Could you please tell my son that the terms mean the same thing? He doesn’t believe me! I really want to help him with his work,” she said with a deep sigh.
“I will first thing tomorrow unless you think I need to talk to him now,” I told her.
“Tomorrow will be just fine. (deep sigh) Thank you! I feel so much better,” she said as she hung up the phone.
Last Wednesday JDaniel and I were sitting having our afternoon snack and he shared with me a song he was learning about short vowel sounds at school. I know it was about short vowel sounds, because I heard the sounds in the song. I honestly couldn’t understand any of the other words. After singing the song, he announced that it was homework to practice the song. How can I help him practice a song if I don’t know the words I thought. If we practice it the way he is singing it, he is going to put it into long term memory all jumbled up.
When I asked him to help me unscramble the words in the song I didn’t understand in the song, he said that is just the way the teacher does it. That statement made me remember that phone call from so long ago. I didn’t call or even e-mail his teacher, but I did think about it. I would love to know how the song is really suppose to go.
I think you should call her! She’d probably be thrilled.
Do you have a back to school night coming up? You could always ask her then. I have emailed P’s teacher once this year, to clarify what reading level he was in.
All.the.time. Daily, honestly! In both 4th grade and kindergarten this year! Hope you are able to decode the song! ;)-Ashley
I hope you are able to get the words and song together so you can help him out. I would call the teacher, or email her! Maybe she can send you the name and you can find the song online and download for him to hear and practice with.
Maybe you could just send an e-mail asking for the song lyrics. 🙂
I haven’t had it happen yet, but I have had my youngest tell me he had to do something (not studies) the way his teacher said, not us, lol.
I don’t even remember if I said something or not (it was last year), or even what it was about n ow, but I do remember being surprised.
It hasn’t happened so much in preschool yet, but I know it will happen. What’s funny (and sad) is that if I don’t know the answer to a question, she’ll say to me, “Well go look on your computer and find out and tell me!”
Remember the days of encyclopedias rather than wikipedias? I remember them well.
That has happened to me many a time. The worst is when the teacher is teaching something the wrong way!! That has happened before too:)
I think you should call her, too. Because powerful song lyrics are powerful. Or? Make up your own? My kid “tells” me something from school all the time – but it’s hard to figure out…like he’ll say “circus was hot” and I’m like HUH? His teacher then tells me that they did cotton candy and the machine was hot….
Oh, sure. I have wanted to share it and I did share it – sometimes at the top of my lungs! They just can’t believe that we know things, sometimes more than their teachers know. BUT!!! I confess – I know NOTHING about math other than that I know nothing about math!
No doubt, somehow I too have had that experience!
Happened to most of us, it’s true!
Happened to most of us, it’s true!
Happy Thursday!
Always wonderful info and fun activities too ~ learning is fun ~ carol, ^_^
Oh yes! The terms change and it’s so easy to slip back into the terms we knew and it convinces our kids that we don’t know anything!
Ha ha ha…
It is like pulling teeth to get Broxton to tell me anything that goes on in school… then, he tries to tell me something about praying and wiggling his fingers… I had NO CLUE what he was talking about and he was getting upset that I did not know the words…
Then, Marc could not understand him and told him to quit playing and bless the food… We were so lost… FINALLY, I just emailed the teacher and asked her to please help me out and tell me what he was trying to say, as I really wanted to help him and was really confused!!!
Want to know what it was?!
“I wiggle my fingers in the air and I put them together to say my prayer.”
Oh, from time to time I hear this dreaded, “You don’t know what you are talking about” comment. I expect to hear it more often over years – she is already starting to correct my English. I only hope I can always have the same trust and regard for her teachers as she does, but so far we had good luck with them.
You should record JDaniel singing it and then play it to his teacher. 🙂 Hope you are able to figure it out.
My son and I were just talking about this the other day. He accepted everything the teacher said and simply wouldn’t listen to what I had to tell him about doing it differently but getting the same result. Now he laughs about it all.