Figuring Out Fractions

Yesterday afternoon, Doug and Alex had a 5:15 haircut appointment while I had to make a stop before coming home from work. Doug started making dinner and Kristina was working on her Science homework. I misunderstood Doug as he was telling Kristina the answers to the questions she had to complete for Wednesday were in the book. I thought she had already read the chapter but was having trouble with the questions so in between working on dinner, I helped Kristina with her Science questions. We finished the homework before dinner was ready. The rest of the evening went smoothly.

This morning, Doug informed me that Kristina never read the chapter and was trying to answer the questions without reading anything. Boy, was I duped! She got me to help her before we made the rule that she has to read her assignments 3 times. I asked her if she read the chapter in her Science book and she began to cry. The crying got more intense as I continued to ask about the reading. Kristina would not talk to me at first and then said "What did I do to you?"

I told her she was not listening to me. I asked Alex for assistance as he translated to her in Russian. I held her hands and asked her why? She said, "her teacher did not tell her to read the chapter before answering the questions." I couldn't believe Kristina did not understand. There are many times when she uses the "I didn't understand or I don't understand" excuse or "You didn't tell me". I told her she could read the chapter now while she is waiting for her ride and she agreed. The TV was turned off and Kristina began reading the chapter.

A few minutes later, she read a section and remembered it was one of the questions on her homework assignment. We both knew she could do it and told her so. Kristina had the biggest smile on her face. When I got home from work today, she told me she had an awesome day at school. Dad said Kristina had a bit on an attitude when he picked her up from school . She's our drama queen!

Today, before dinner, we tackled fractions. Again, with the crying and "it's too hard!" "I never learned this." I reminded her she said the very same thing to multiplication and division. She's a whiz on the multiplication now and knows some division. I told her again, if she knows multiplication and division, then she can do fractions. We gave her a problem and she started getting it. She wanted to work on another problem all by herself. We are down to the last two problems and Kristina asked Alex to help her, he's great with math. So we ended the day with a great spaghetti dinner and Kristina back in smiles.