Last night was a Pizza night, simply for lack of energy. Both Scott and I had pretty intense days at work. His was in the cold and wet in a slippery tree. He won.
And it was Math Night, so we talked about fractions while the pizza was baking. We drew our own circle and split it multiple ways so we could see what a 1/2 meant and a 1/4 and how 2/4 is actually 1/2, then how it made sense to add only the top portion to say a 1/4 plus a 1/4 equals 1/2, and how to work out a word problem for 1/8 is 1/2 of 1/4. All this math was coming back to me with a big image like a pizza. It was rather fun and challenging, until I couldn’t figure out how to divide, and I got stuck, and it was time to eat anyway. Happy for small blessings and distractions of food.
Source: pharmagician.deviantart.com via Liesl on Pinterest
After dinner, I looked up Fractals – because a client had told me about them at lunch. I was telling her about our Nerd Rap of last night and how much fun it was for Language and Literature night. She said, “So if that’s Monday, what’s Tuesday?” Math Night. And she grilled me about the other topics throughout the week. She was partially laughing at me and praising me at the same time. I like praise, so I took it. She knew that my kids were artistic, I’d shown her pictures of their Halloween costumes, and she suggested I check out Fractals. They are the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen, pure magical math and science and art combined. They are a perfect storm of creative genius.
Here’s the thing. I always wanted to be a teacher. I don’t think I could be a teacher in this climate. Teachers aren’t given the freedom to go down bunny trails of an interest because they sense a spark of curiosity brewing. Because I know my kids are into engines and art, that is where I focus my learning time explorations. In a classroom, I don’t think I would be able to do that. So – I teach at home. Not in a Home School Way, because there are parts of learning that can be drudgery. Those parts I’ll leave to the professionals. I want to be the one who shares the amazing, wonderful, mind-blowing, beautiful, challenging, and inspiring stuff. By sharing the teaching of my kids with their public school, they get the basics, they get the socialization, and we all get to have fun with each other at home. And every night, I get to see my kids’ minds expand with wonder.
After the kids went to bed, I spent a while pinning fractal images onto a new Pinterest board and astounding myself further!
