Sometimes You Just Gotta Have a C.O.W.
September 18, 2011
Integrated Algebra is slow going. The girls aren’t where they should be according to my perfectly scheduled calendar.
Of course, it just dawned on me a couple days ago that the girls don’t have to do each and every practice problem in each and every section. Uh, DUH!
Yes, I’ve fallen victim to the demands of my inner school teacher… again! “We’ll do this, all of this, exactly like this. Because that’s just the way you do it!”
*sigh*
I was assigning 3-4 sections each week, making for approximately 120 practice problems a week. Now that still doesn’t seem like a lot to me, but I’m starting to think maybe it’s just not necessary. The girls spent the better part of the past 2 weeks doing nothing but math from about 10am till 9 or 10 at night. They even had nightmares about algebra! Yes, they woke themselves from slumber trying to solve complicated problems! Yikes!
So this week, while I reevaluate the math assignments, we’re having a C.O.W.
I came up with the idea of Creativity Output Week (COW) last year. The girls always have individual projects they want to work on. But that pesky inner school teacher keeps them from having as much time as they wish to work on them. During a COW, the kids are free to do whatever they want with their time so long as it:
1. is creative, meaning it involves original works using their imagination and
2. has some kind of output, or something to show for their time.
Needless to say, the kids ask for a COW a lot.
SO this week we’ll have a COW and the kids will busy themselves with creative writing, computer programming, arts, crafts, sewing, science experiments, game making, photography, ….
And I’ll be busy trying to get that silly school teacher under control 
