Multiplication - it's time we meet

Can we just say Pierce went to bed excited tonight? Okay, understatement. He's also pretty proud of himself, and he should be.

When Mrs. Honey saw me come through the door this afternoon to pick-up Pierce, she came out of the office to catch me before I got Pierce.

"Wow, did Pierce do a great thing and make us look good. He came up to me while the Department of Education gentleman* was by me and said "Mrs. Honey, I've done the addition and multiplication books. I want to try multiplication.' I didn't know how he would do but thought let's give it a try. I showed him how to do a couple of the problems with the beads and then he took off on his own. AND he did three [held up her fingers for emphasis] books. It was great. I was so proud of him and how wonderful that the visitors saw his learning."

I, of course, was smiling huge and made a couple of comments about being proud, his obviously listening while the boys do math facts, trying to do very basic ones on his own, playing with food, toys or dots to show multiplication at home, and being happy he could help Montessori. We talked about his timing, showing he already knew addition and subtraction, sought out this new challenge on his own and did it and that he's just over five wanting to do this. We agree - kindergarten will be interesting for him after having such an amazing and growing year!

As soon as I asked Pierce about his day and Mrs. Honey was standing by, his smile grew ten fold - he always has an amazing smile for me when I pick him up - and he said "I did multiplication today!" You can be sure, Mitch and both brothers heard about it. So did Meghan at basketball.


*State of Iowa Department of Education were visiting to get a better understanding of Montessori curriculum as there are state discussions about preschool curriculum and training for preschool teachers. A potential bill would require consistency in training and not count Montessori. This would be a loss given the intense, specialized and strong training Montessori instructors go through and the curriculum that has worked for decades.