Surprising Kids and a Proud Mama.

Yesterday was a long day. We had co-op with our homeschool group and I taught the class of first, second and third graders a lesson on basic fractions. I had planned several activities, a couple of worksheets, a book called "Halfway Hank" which is very cute and the Hershey's Chocolate Fraction book. In case I ran out of things to do, I also took one of the suggestions from the lesson plans page below. It suggested that each child take a handful of beans and try to divide it evenly into half, then thirds and fourths. The kids surprised me by enjoying this activity the most - more than the Hershey's Chocolate Fractions book. I even gave each child their own Hershey Bar to divide and then eat and they liked the beans more. They did eat the chocolate without complaining, mind you, but they begged to take some of the beans home and went out with pocketfuls of them. Fun!

Later in the day, we had some thunderstorms. My younger son is afraid of storms and I couldn't seem to comfort him. My older son took him aside and played a game with him to help him not be afraid of the storm. It worked like a charm. I'm so proud of my 13-year-old for being so thoughtful. What a great kid.