Kindergarden was easy and carefree. First grade is totally different. They have homework almost every weekday in first grade. This is not Grace’s rant but mine. Making sure my child is doing homework, and completing any school requirement is another huge add-on responsibility that I did not see or experience that until now. Welcome to grade school! Another milestone for me as parent.
Passing my understanding to a simple minded child like my daughter is a frustrating process. Last night, we sat at the table and we were working on counting numbers, recognizing them, and writing them down. Grace can count more than 100, and she can also recognize the number and identify them as they were written. But when I randomly sounded out number, some of them she has problem with. She is still confused between “-tee” and “-teen”, as in fourty and fourteen. The special exception such as “eleven” and “twelve”, she got it, but from “thirteen” to “twenty” is still a mistery in her head. There’s some misconnection there somewhere.
Our conversation was like:
Me: Write Sixteen Grace: Sixteen .... (thinking) ... Six .. Zero! Me: No! That's sixty. When you hear "teen", it means 1. Grace: OK ... Six ... One! Me: No, no! Let's count from Ten. Grace: Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Me: Right there. Sixteen. How do you write Sixteen? Grace: One .. Six! Me: Now write Seventy-two! Grace: Seventy-two .... Seven ... Two Me: Good job! .... Twenty! Grace: Twenty .... Uh.... (pat hand on forehead) Me: When you hear "tee", it means zero. Grace: Twenty .... Zero... uh... Me: The leading number first. ... Two .. Zero. Grace: Two ... Zero! Me: Now write Fourty! Grace: Fourty .... Four ... Zero! Me: Good! Now, ... Fourteen! Grace: Fourteen .... Four ... One... Me: No, Grace!... What did I tell you about the "teen"? Grace: ... (don't remember, and about to cry)...
We spent quite sometime with all these numbers. I tried to explain three-zero is called “thirty”, not “three-ty”, or five-zero is “fifty”, not “five-ty.” She nod along but I think I probably just confused her more. It had been like 30-40 minutes on these numbers already, and she just wanted to get out of there and do something else. I tried to keep my cool, but noticeably my voice got louder and I scared the kid rather let her think about it. It was time to stop and gave her a break.
I totally give props to teachers, people in teaching profession, or people who homeschool their kids. It takes a lot of patient and consideration. Grace has no problem understand her teachers, but she is totally lost sometime when I try to explain things. Certainly raising voice or wrong attitude while teaching the kid do not help either. I remembered back when we were kids, we usually got whipped for not understanding certain concept after many explanations. I don’t see how that help and it’s totally a big no-no that I will refrain from doing that to my kid.
I train people at work. I explain a technical problem to friends, or show someone how to do something. I speak in front of crowd, lead the church program, lead Bible study, teach Sunday Bible school. But I got to admit, teaching is definitely NOT my talent and is NOT something I am good at. I think I’m easily frustrated or loosing my cool when I try to explain something, that seems to me a very fundamental or simple concept, to someone who absolutely has no idea what I’m talking about after many explanation attemps. I certainly have a lot to learn, and need a lot of strength and wisdom for doing this every day.