"Fourty-five, fifty, sixty, seventy-five and a quarter makes a dollar."

Okay- so teaching something is a lot harder than I thought. We are using the same math book at home that Abby was using in school. She had already been learning about money value in school so we are just continuing with that. Well...let me just say that it is not as easy as it looks. Now think about it. Abby is a first grader and she still has a difficult time thinking abstractly. So when we start looking at 25 pennies, 1 quarter, 5 nickles, 2 dimes and 5 pennies and they all equal the same thing...i literally wanted to laugh out loud. I mean, I am really kind of an idiot. So, I am learning as I go. I HATE to type that. I know that that is a HUGE thing. But, don't teachers in the system have a "first year" also. So, we put that part up until tomorrow. She knows all of the coins and their values...but she's not adding double digits yet...so WHY would they put that kind of problem in the book at this time? I'm just wondering. Maybe it's just so they can see how the dollars & cents are written. WHO KNOWS!!!!!
Today we had a conflict. She did not want to do something that I was telling her to do...and she argued with me about it. I thought this was great because I got to talk to her right then about her rebellion. "Abby, why do you not want to obey?" "You are prolonging your school work by the choices that you are making." I made her complete the work that we were doing and then I let her have a break. (play and run , eat lunch etc.) After about an hour we did the rest and it was really good. I am having to learn "her". How long is too long for her? When is she not being disobedient and just being seven? When is she trying to sabotage the lesson so I will quit? (I am kind of kidding on the last one...but not completely. She is seven and she has a strong will...so sometimes she just wants to stop.)
We are studying the Ancients right now so today we studied our first Myth. It was about Osiris and Set. Set, the evil brother, wanted to be king...so he drowned his brother. However, when Osiris' wife, Isis, found him in the "specialty coffin" floating down the Nile -she got him out, like any good wife would, and wrapped him in linen (b/c she wanted him to be buried in a pyramid) and he came back to life. This is one of the stories that the Egyptians told and believed to explain the yearly flooding of the Nile. (Makes sense to me.) Abby really is getting into it. She likes the stories. And, the discussion that we are having has honestly been amazing. We had a huge discussion last week about the flooding in New Orleans (spurred on by a study of the first farmers and villages near The Fertile Crescent...this is all in the book- I can't remember ever studying any of this.) Abby said that she thought New Orleans should be rebuilt only if the planners built "huge walls " around it to hold the water back. When I told her that it had those previously we talked about "elevation , engineering, etc."
Thus far, in my vast knowledge of 4 days, I think that the success of this has to do with MY focus. She obviously has had the ability to have the conversations and to think on these levels...I just probably have not known what types of things to read to her and what types of questions to ask. I like this because I am preparing every night to engage with my child in a new & different way. So maybe this is more about me...i don't know yet.