When I'm a Parent....

So the more I sub I realize how much I plan on working with my kids on making sure they are smart. For example, I remember when I was young, around 7 or 8, my dad made me learn my times tables, ya know multiplcation (I never said I was good at spelling) tables. Every week we did at least one number. We started with 1 (obviously) and went to 10, which is probably why I don't know my 12s all that well. I would go to my room, sit at my desk and write
1 x 1 =1
1 x 2 =2
1 x 3 = 3
1 x 4 =4
and etc.
I would do this until I reached 10 for each number. He would make me write them 10 times each night for a week. Every night that I did them he would want to see my work to make sure that I actually did them. He waited for a commerical and he would put the TV on mute and quiz me on all of them. Sometimes he would do them in order and other times he would mix them up. He taught me that some of them rhyme like when you say six times four equals twenty-four. Say it.....see what I mean? In the schools that I go to most students still don't know these simple things. Things that they will use for the rest of their lives and yet they are still counting on fingers and using calculators or looking around the room for the posted list of all the times tables. I find this very sad and want to make sure that my kids (whenever I have them) will learn these.

While I'm on this soapbox, handwriting is another thing. Did you know that most teachers are making their students type their work before they hand it in to them. While this is great to make it easier for the teacher to read and understand it is doing nothing for their handwriting skills or their spelling. I say spelling cause if you misspell a word in Word it underlines it in red. So all the student has to do is click on it and the correct spelling will appear. Are they really learning how to spell the word or just "get close" and let Word do the rest. This does nothing for their spelling and use of a dictionary. While I believe that technology is a great thing, it can't be everything. Kids today need to learn the basics and if they don't I feel it will hinder them later in life. Okay, I'm stepping down....until I can find something else to get up there about *smile*.