Home schooling through ridicule and abuse

So today I told Daniel that his freaking out over not being able to do long division easily was the silliest thing I'd ever seen, cuffed him on the back of the head, and sent him back to finish his work. And he did, giggling all the way. It probably helped that I started my tirade with "Daniel, come here and let me give you a hug even though you're being amazingly dumb."

I swear, he frightens me. On Monday he was introduced to the concept of division. I explained it as filling in the blanks in a multiplication sentence (eg, 5 x __ = 15), just using a slightly different arrangement of the numbers. On Tuesday he figured out remainders, with a bit of help. Then yesterday he went on to the next page, without my knowing he had, and taught himself long division (eg 77/4 = 19 R1). By the time I'd figured out what he was doing, he'd gone halfway through the long division page. This morning he started to lose it because he just couldn't keep the numbers from jumbling as he tried to work out 251/7.

This is one of the reasons I'm glad he's home. Not just because he's able to go ahead and learn stuff he's not supposed to be doing this year without having to wait for the rest of the class to catch up, but because he's just so much easier to handle at home. I know if this had happened at school he probably would've ended up being sent to the office, a total nervous wreck. Because I doubt any of his teachers would've been able to defuse him through humour, especially ending a mock-tirade with a good whuppin', "So don't ::whack:: let me hear you say ::whack, whack:: that you can't do math! ::whack:: Get back to work, ::whack::, you evil genius ::whack:: and STOP LAUGHING!!"


Oh and: Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you of the American persuasion :) :)