Formidable Fractions?

I didn't recall learning fractions at a tender age of 8, in primary 2. I remembered all we learned then was some basic addition and subtraction. This evening, when I was in the midst of some reading activities with Little Bee, Big Bee - with furrowed brows - remarked that she was utterly confused by "this difficult Math thing called fraction", in her own words. 

That provoked my radar screen immediately. "Fractions? Oh, you are learning that today?" And she told me her class just launched into their first fraction concept today. I quickly wrapped up my learning activity with Little Bee and whipped out a pencil and paper to teach her the concept of fractions, using everyday elements at home, like wedges of cakes and trays of ice cubes. 

Unfortunately, poor Little Bee was constantly interrupting us as she was displeased with the fairly abrupt way in which I concluded her learning activities. So, it was truly a game of juggling the concept of 4/8 = 2/4 = 1/2 with Big Bee versus getting Little Bee to identify words like "bear" and "duck" in our forest animal theme - all at the same time! 

Big Bee understood the concept and was beaming at the end of the evening. Little Bee could also read "bear" and "duck" independently. 

It could be frazzling with 2 kids demanding for your attention simultaneously. But instead of feeling frustrated or distracted having to turn my head left and right every 5 seconds, and reprimanding the children, I chose to take a deep breath and imbue myself with patience. True enough, that led to cheerful, contented Bees who learned constructively and a more peaceful Mummy. 

Patience is truly a virtue that we should stock up our Mummy larder with :)