It's a Good Mommy Day

Olivia has been struggling with her mixed multiplication facts. She's gotten through all of her single fact tests without much trouble, but she's been stuck on the mixed facts for about a month. Her teacher gives the students 5 minute timed tests and they only get to move on if they score 80% or better.

Lately, Olivia has been very bothered that she hasn't been able to move on. As a mom to 4, it's hard to make time for everyone and with Olivia being the oldest and pretty self-sufficient, she tends to get put at the bottom of the list (oooh, it pains me to say that!).

Well, today I'm giving myself a pat on the back. I went out and got some new twistable crayons ... complete with glitter and rainbow colors and some white index cards. I found a great website that has all sorts of downloadable math worksheets and printed a bunch off.

When she came home from school today, I presented her with my idea. She's going to use her new crayons to make her own flash cards! I could have purchased flash cards from the dollar store, but I figured she would learn better by doing them herself. Initially she didn't look very enthused (with that "Oh Mom, you're NOT serious!" look), but I held stedfast in my excitement and told her that I never really learned my multiplication facts in school and that I was going to study with her (Oh no, what did I just do?!). Then, we could have timed tests against each other to see who wins! Suddenly, she thought that was hilarious and loved the idea!

We kept the TV off all afternoon. She worked on her flash cards, Nicholas worked on a craft project while I cleaned the kitchen with the iPod playing butt-shaking hip hop music (thank you, Lady GaGa!). We were all laughing and having a great time together.

It's a Good Mommy Day!