Daley Ponderings

The boys (and Heather has enjoyed it too - I haven't gotten to it yet) have really been enjoying Khan Academy this last week.  It is an educational tool, with lots of questions to test you on different skills.  Jonathan is especially motivated by the reward badges it gives you when you do certain activities.  It does a good job of remembering how well you have done on previous problems to decide whether you need more practice or not.  It also has helpful videos to teach you new concepts.

Noah was working on some fraction problems (identifying the numerator and denominator).  He had gotten three problems right and couldn't figure out why the fourth was wrong, and so I asked him if he had watched the video.  He hadn't, but had just guessed, and the first three has asked him what the numerator was, and so he had picked the first number.  He didn't notice the question changed on the fourth problem.  I suggested that perhaps he should watch the video, although I think he didn't, but did see that the question was slightly different, and so then did the bottom number instead....  I guess we will see as time goes on whether this form of experimenting/learning is useful, or if it teaches you interesting things that end up not really working out. (More)

I'll take this opportunity, home from church with two sick kids, to post my notes.

10/19 - JDD, "Most fun things are spoiled if you HAVE to do them."  I forget the context of his quote but it reminded me of my thought at the harvest supper.  The middle and high school youth groups were the servers for the meal, and they did a great job and looked like they enjoyed it. But then I saw one of them asking Barbara to sign off on the community service hours and it got me thinking.  I'm disappointed that the kids are required to do some number of community service hours.  The requirement takes away the free service part of it and basically makes it forced unpaid labor - slavery!  Now I understand that sometimes it takes persuasion or force to get you to do something at first, but then hopefully you can see what a joy it is to make people's lives better.  I would think that even if you enjoyed a particular service, there is something taken away from the freedom in it to have to keep track of the hours.  But at any rate, these kids are making the best of their requirement and enjoying it anyway!

10/19 - JPD rolled back to front.

10/25 - JPD 8 mo visit. 20.5 lb, 27.25"

10/26 - JPD has been saying "hi" (sounds like "ha") and waving this month, and today he said, "bye".

10/27 - Joy, "I really like my song blanket.  It's really fun, with music."

10/28 - Faith counts from 900-1000.  Then continued, taking 10 minutes to get to 1100, then another 40
minutes to get to 1200.

10/28 - JPD gets 2nd tooth. (bottom L incisor)

10/30 - JPD says, "da, da" for dirty diaper  (Not necessarily repeated - da,da is a common word for him.)

11/2 - JPD climbs up two stairs, Faith saves him.

11/3 - JPD climbs half way up the stairway, Mom spotting.  One time he sat down, one time he slipped.  At the
triangle threshold, he had difficulty.  After some work, decided he was done and Mom carried him up the
rest of the way.

Jeremiah has been a bit wheezy with this cold but of course it's the weekend so we can't call the doctor.  Joy was coughing a lot last evening, but has not wheezed.  She seems much better this morning after I let her sleep late.