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Friday, September 27, 2013

Seven Quick Takes


My dad had "minor" surgery last week.  Unfortunately, it knocked him for a loop and now he is in rehab to rebuild his strength.  At this point I'm not sure what the results of the surgery mean, but what I do know is that he is 84, has congestive heart failure and that the condition they did the surgery for is one that could kill him one day.  In short, I am more and more reminded of his mortality daily.  My nine year old asked me if he was going to die, and I told her we never know, but chances were her Grandpa wasn't going to live a whole lot longer.  She complained that he is the only grandparent she as left.  Here he is with the grandkids last Christmas.
As I've been enjoying the pleasures of doing homework with my daughter, I've been following the debate about Common Core.  I don't see anything wrong, in general, with the standards.  I don't like the data gathering and all the money for computers for testing.  However, I had to raise my eyebrows at some of the math problems she has had.  For example, can anyone tell me why in the world anyone would solve the problem 9X7 by saying 5x7 + 4x7= 35+28=63
Speaking of homework, how much is normal?  I'm getting so sick of having my evenings consumed by it, and it isn't even October yet.
I reviewed an interesting book about women into today's world.  I know the 7QT group is more SAHMs than working moms but I'd be interested to know what folks think.
Our Catholic school is looking for fundraisers.  Does your school do anything that makes a lot of money for a little work, or more importantly as far as I'm concerned, gets a lot of outside money?  Have your kids ever gone someplace that didn't see stuff or have fundraisers other than stating a need and asking for donations?
I'm running out of things to say, and out of time before work.
God bless all of you and thanks for stopping by.
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

5 comments:

  1. I thought multiplication tables were to be memorized anyways, once the concept was understood?

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  2. That's what I've always thought--and it isn't like that method gets you out of learning your tables.

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  3. Local friends had the same complaint about Math recently. Must be some new fangled way of thinking ..sigh

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  4. I had to chuckle at that math problem. Talk about making it more complicated!

    With my grandmother's passing so fresh your first take is very poignant to me. I'll pray for you.

    As for fundraisers, my favorite (although I don't know how much money it brings in) is the Read-A-Thon that our Catholic school does. They allow people to do a flat donation, and it seems most people take that option, but I think it would be so much better to encourage kids to push for 5-cent-a-minute types of commitments, the way we used to do with Math-A-Thon and Bike-A-Thon. I like it because a) there's virtually no loss of money; everything people give goes to the school, not some company that's overcharging for products nobody needs; and b) it's a fundraiser that encourages kids to do something good for their education. What's not to like?

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  5. RAnn, I'm praying for you, your Dad, and your whole family.

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