After Benjamin had a mathematical breakthrough this week, suddenly, he is completely consumed with math and the beauty of it, the problem solving, art, design, functionality and pure joy of it. This gorgeous picture was one we found on a google search when I typed in the words “Mathematical Beauty.”

That was right after we’d looked for a picture showing gears in the head because at 5:30 this morning, he woke up and wanted to write equations. By 6:30, he was coming to show me a page of math work that he is doing for himself in a little book he made out of construction paper stapled together. He told me that these numbers illustrated his brain – that it was all gears and shifters and things attached from one end of his brain to the other.

The picture of gears in the head truly helps me see what is going on in that head of his. He has creations layered one on top of another. He will be a problem solver, now that he is starting to understand how math is at the core of most of the difficult discoveries, inventions and creations that make life better for us all.

Yesterday he started doing math doodles that create a crossword puzzle sort of design, all made from complex math sequences that intersect each other perfectly. I had never seen anything like it, and it made my heart stop just a little. He is tapping out sequences of rhythm that he is understanding to be mathematical in nature. His little brain is on overload with a whole new world this opens up for him, and at the same time, we are learning some really awesome right-brain left-brain exercises to help him steady himself when he starts to feel his head is about to explode. He is eight years old. I may be in for the ride of my life with this one.

I’m just happy it is the weekend, and the sun is coming up, and he can go ride his mini-bike and be all boy and get filthy dirty on our farm. That helps balance him more than anything else in the world.

photo of gears from here

photo of mathematical beauty from here