Home Math Academy

On Saturday mornings, K-Pop has established a routine consisting of:

1. Hearty breakfast, normally a combination of eggs, oatmeal with chocolate chips, fruit, yogurt and sometimes cereal (though any cereal in the diet invariably elicits protests from K-Mum when she appears later in the morning). 
2. One to two sheets of math
3. Two sheets of Chinese
4. Piano for K-bao (with ABCMouse, an educational app, for C-bao)
5. Free play

Both girls have made good progress with their math. C-bao has only recently started her worksheets and is currently on basic addition and subtraction up to 30. K-bao can now do double digit multiplication, basic division, and very simple algebra. Here are a few recent problem sets that K-bao tackled. 

Homeschool

From time to time K-bao and sister C-bao are off from school during a weekday, such as during teacher development days. These turn into homeschool days when either K-Pop or K-Mum have to work from home and try to keep the kids out of trouble.

To maintain some sanity and order, K-Pop generally creates a schedule that includes math and Chinese worksheets, some free reading and play time, a bunch of "instructional apps" (Khan Academy, DreamBox Learning, Kodable, and a Chinese vocabulary app), piano, and if he's feeling really ambitious, some art and painting time on the balcony outside. The below whiteboard schedule from last week is typical.

Chinese Note

Over the years, K-Pop has preached to K-bao the importance of learning the Chinese language and understanding her Chinese heritage and culture. At one point K-bao managed to memorize a good number of Tang Dynasty poems (which now unfortunately have been mostly forgotten); generally she practices a few characters at least once every couple of weeks.

These lessons have not always been well-received. Indeed, any and all Chinese lessons, particularly of late, have been met with not a small amount of resistance. In some cases, strong words have been used by the little one.

The below seven characters shown below, which were assigned this past week, might be a typical exercise. In this case, the usual complaining of course ensued, but K-bao eventually dutifully went off to write them, along with some other scribbles she added on of her own accord.

Much to K-Pop's surprise, the following message was scrawled on the back.

Perhaps all is not lost!

Thank You

Over the holidays, K-bao visited the K-Grandfolks in LA.

As usual, her grandparents spoiled her to no end. This is not new. There were more noodle making lessons, as well as specially-made onion pancakes.

In gratitude (finally!), K-bao drew up the below card of appreciation, and even managed to write out a message in Chinese.

Chinese

K-bao is not quite at the point yet where she grasps the fundamental importance (not to mention future practical usefulness) of being fluent in Chinese. And yes, the K-folks know that that realization may not happen for another 15 years. A long road ahead indeed.

While she entered preschool with Mandarin as her dominant language, after spending most of her waking hours at school in an English-language environment with English-speaking friends for the last three years, English has clearly become her default. That train is unlikely to turn around without more direct intervention.

Nonetheless, the fact that sister C-bao only speaks Chinese is reason for daily practice. In addition, she has obediently acquiesced to the K-folks' requests that she practice her characters once in while. Thus far, she has learned a couple dozen, earning her numerous stickers in the process. K-Pop recently picked up some additional practice material in a Taipei bookstore. Hopefully the parental resolve - and student discipline - will persist in the years ahead.