Is is "hard" being a sahm?
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Is is "hard" being a sahm?
| Sat, 04-24-2004 - 1:25pm |
For many years now, I have heard the claim that being a sahm is the hardest job in the world. I never chimed in, because I didn't know first hand. I stayed home for 6 weeks when my twin daughters, Sophia and Stephanie (almost 4) were born. And that was hard, because I had 2 newborns. Now, almost 4 years later, I have resigned my job and am staying home again. I can god-honestly say that I don't know what's so hard about this. I personally feel like I am on easy street, but maybe that's because I haven't been at it that long. I feel like I am on vacation. It takes no longer than a couple hours a day to do the housework, and the rest of the time is free time for me and the girls. We have gone to the park, the zoo, chuck e cheeses, and I know not every day is going to be like this, but I feel like I am making up for lost time. My children seem happy and relaxed. The only hard thing about this is that they have gotten into some pretty raging fights with each other, but the fights have ended with quick intervention. I guess I am just wondering how long before this becomes "The hardest job in the world" and I start looking like a zombie, complaining that my husband doesn't help me, and so on? Or do I seriously have the choice not to turn into that? Also, do you think that at the rate I am going, I am at risk for getting bored staying home?

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http://www.math.nyu.edu/mfdd/braams/links/em-arith.html
It was the same difference rule (I used the wrong name for it earlier) that threw dd for a loop. The whole idea of adding before you subtract just blew her away. She can add and she can take away but she doesn't get why you add in order to take away (this one should insure our kids are great at balancing their check books, lol). The idea is simple, if you give a child enough methods to pick from they're more likely to be able to eliminate possible wrong answers and guess the right one on a test. If you can get a child in the ballpark, they increase their chances of guessing right on the state exams.
What really blows me away with EDM is there are no longer right and wrong answers. Any reasonable answer is accptable. Um, yeah, THAT is a skill that will carry you through college. I don't want my nurse giving me a REASONABLE dosage when I'm in the hospital. I want her giving me the RIGHT dosage. I had a nurse almost kill me years ago when she failed to convert units correctly. Fortunately, all she did was send me off to la-la land for a day.
My favorite though is teaching arithemetic facts using "Fact Triangles". You give the child a triangle with numbers in the corners and an arithemetic sign, say 2, 6 and 18 and a division sign and ask them to make a problem. My dd has this down pat, you take the largest number and put it to the left of the division sign and then put one of the other two numbers to the right of the division sign and the other to the right of the equal sign. She can do this with ABSOLUTELY NO THOUGHT!! Her teacher assures me this is teaching her her math facts. Nope. It's teaching her how to arrange the numbers. I've drilled her on the problems she just did 5 minutes later and she couldn't tell me the answer if I left out a number. This is math for dummies as it's really a dummying down of math.
My kindergartener is learning STATISTICS!!! (said gleefully as in a sales pitch) They took different colored leaves and arranged them in a pareto chart. Now, do you REALLY think any of those kids got that that was a pareto chart? Nope, it was just an arrangement of leaves. Didn't teach them a thing about statistics. While it was a good exercise on grouping it is passed off to parents who are too easily star struck as an early introduction to statistics which it is not. One of our PTA members is star struck with this program because it teaches statistics in kindergarten and geometry in 3rd grade. If you call naming a polygon Micheal learning geometry, then I guess my dd is learning geometry. Oh, and my all time favorite homework assignment asked: "If math were a color, what color woud it be? If math were a food, what food it would be?" and another equally rediculous question that I can't think of off the top of my head. They wnat kids to feel GOOD about math. I'd rather my dd be able to DO math thank you.
Thanks for the infor on Kumran. I'm going to have to look into that. The Japenese teach their children math VERY WELL. IMO, we should be embracing programs that take us closer to their style of teaching NOT farther away.
<<She should be less tolerant of her DH's inaction because his behavior falls below even the minimal acceptable threshhold for a parent.>>
Not based on what has been posted here.
<<Dh tried to tell me what to do with the book. >>
Or, he tried to tell you how he felt. Not very effectively, granted. But the two of you aren't speaking the same language, and you are refusing to find a translator.
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