Teaching and learning the same lesson.

This week, we hit a speed bump in the land of learning. Despite studying as a family for a math test for an hour and a half, K bombed a math test. A 47% bomb.

Ouch.

I e-mailed her teacher in a near heart attack. I knew K would be devastated. (Grades were posted online that night which is how I knew before school the next day.) I told her that our normally A-B student doesn't generally get F's, much less on tests, and I was just trying to figure out what went wrong so as not to repeat again. She was kind in responding back that afternoon that K did well at working through problems and where the big issue was was in the finer details. She added or left off a zero. She did long work on figuring out an answer, but wrote the wrong one down - that kind of thing. K was crushed that morning and cried. "But Mom, I worked very hard on that." She did say that she had the option of staying back and listening to Mrs. H talk through each question or to press on. She went ahead, got a bit behind on details and instead of stopping and asking for directions on her problems she, "Problem solved, Mom!" Mrs. H did report that the grades for the whole class were not good, but the same happened the year before. In the end, K will have a D on her interim report - something she hasn't had yet. It is fixable. I will take time, though.

K took a lesson from this. She studied from 3:30-8:45 PM on Thursday. When I commented on how long it was taking, she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "Mom, you tell me not to rush and I was not rushing. Now you are telling me to rush because you said I took too much time. I like to study, Mom."

Mother of the Year right here, folks!"

I felt so horrible. She is right. The ADD in me says, "GO! GO! GO!" Yet, I need to step back and take stock of the mixed messages I was giving. I apologized. We have a policy of open communication in our house and I thanked her for talking to me about what bothered her. Her teacher says it is fixable and every student ditches a test once in a while. K has learned and so have we.

I may be regretting our current lack of heat this evening.

It is supposed to go down to a crisp 42 degrees this evening. I left all of our windows open a crack all day. Currently, the house is a bit chilly. I have dropped an extra heavy blanket onto my slumbering child. I'm curled under a fleece blanket while sitting on the couch and have a pillow and my sleeping bag on standby. You see, Hubs took my allergy meds yesterday, and he was unable to sleep last night. Hubs is not one to go without sleep well, he came home from work and went right to sleep. I cannot have him give the furnace a once-over before starting it and it will have that yucky burn-off smell. I don't want to do that with two people asleep and keeping the windows closed.

It's going to be a hair chilly here in the land of Bailey's Leaf. I have a candle burning, but I don't think it can generate enough heat. It's a little to early to start cooking up my pot of mulling spices. It's all good. A little chill in the air won't kill us. I may have to chip myself off the couch in the morning, though.

Warm milk for your brain.

When K was an infant, my sister-in-law gave her a handful of music CDs to listen to. One of those CDs got the most play, even earning an emergency copy after the CD was cracked when the radio fell out of the car. She listened to it so often that even I can predict the next note.

Recently, K was having some difficulty sleeping. We looked through music CDs and found the old standby.

It worked like a charm. Just like the days of old (when she was an infant until she started Kindergarten) it put her right to sleep.

I tell you, even after all this time it still remains as warm milk for her brain. You see, kiddo has taken to going to bed listening to books on tape. There are occasions that she gets so wrapped up in what she is listening to that she can't shut her brain off.

It makes me smile to know that it still soothes. She isn't too old yet!