Their Enthusiasm is Gonna Kill Me

I guess I must be doing something right, with this homeschooling thingie.

Several of my children have been nearing the ends of their Math-U-See books. So I ordered the next step up. Math-U-See has, however, changed their curriculum since we began, so my three oldest are transitioning to the new system. I decided to continue to use "Classic" with the littles since less changed and I already have the teacher's materials and all that.

Anyway, we've been waiting anxiously for the order to arrive and today it finally did. It actually arrived at the same moment, in the same delivery, with a separate order of Magic Eye books, which was equally anticipated, and purchased for a great price through BookCloseouts.com.

So the screams of "The Math is here! It's from Math-U-See! It's here! It's here!" quickly shifted to "Oooh, the Magic Eye books are here, can we each do one?" and I thought the Math Enthusiasm had waned.

I was wrong. The Magic Eye excitement lasted only a few minutes before they were begging to open the math. And then they stood screaming over each newly-packaged book, with their fancy greek letters, and asking which one was for whom. Since the program is new to me, and it took me several days, myself, to figure out who would move to what and which one to get for whom, and shoving them in my face, while the 3 year old yelled, over and over, "I get a new math? I get a new math?" and I couldn't remember whether I'd ordered one for him, and if so which one, and whether I'd gotten Primer for the almost-4 year old or for the Kindergartner, and with all the enthusiasm and shouting I just couldn't think.

In the end, we got it sorted out, divvied up, and labeled with the children's names. The oldest 3 rushed to their "old" math to finish up so they can dive into their new books. Iliacat just needs to polish her last test from the old book and dive into the new, which is about 2/3 review and I expect her to whiz through it, getting extra practice and feeling smart, and then I'll order yet another new one for her, the next level.

Gark is a little behind her, but not much, and is really motivated to catch up. So he's busy trying to see how fast he can finish off his old book.

It's loud and chaotic and enthusiastic, but since it's all about math, I guess I can't complain.

I just wish my 3 year old would find his volume control. And stop asking the same question again and again and again if he doesn't like the first answer.