Because Ben and I are both artists, and experience a large range of emotions, we’ve had to learn about anger and how to handle it, manage it, subdue it, understand it and live with it. We each have a tendency to fly off the handle and we’ve had to study the Primitive Brain otherwise known as the Fight or Flight part of the brain that … Continue reading Primitive Brain – Fight or Flight – and Homework
Once again, I will start by saying I didn’t always love Math. I struggled with it, and couldn’t figure out how I would ever need it in a life of creative pursuit. Then I had children. Those children are creators in their own rights – with structure and form and spatial relationships. My kids build and design and Math is going to be something they … Continue reading Astounded by all the Kissing in Math
Gears are at the heart of so many things around here. Scott is building a race car for the Drag Strip that is around the corner from our house. Both boys like to build motorcycles and bikes, and finger bikes, and scooters and anything else with wheels, really. I can see them going into fields like engineering or design or drafting. They are artists. Anything … Continue reading Gears, Math and Contrary
Tonight it dawned on me what I’m trying to accomplish by doing Science Night with my kids, as well as all the other fun things we do. I am attracted to every shiny object in the world of Science, Art, Math, Dance, Design, Engineering, or Thought. And so I bounce from new idea to new idea, and try to stuff my kids’ heads with wild and … Continue reading Physics and Rollercoasters
While we were waiting for Scott’s amazing Enchilada’s to finish cooking, we played our standard, challenging, wonderful math games at the table. After dinner, Ben went out to the shop with his dad to work on his Motorcycle which just got back from the shop. For a boy who loves nothing more, I do not believe, than his motorcycle, it has been an incredible hardship … Continue reading Who Says Battleship isn’t a Math Game?
We completely ran out of time for Math Games. But, I’d recently bought this amazing product at Barnes and Noble, and had it stowed in my closet for a good time, and this seemed like the perfect time to break it out. It is a Design and Build game that is also rather mathematical, engineering-ish, and pure beauty all mixed together. With literally moments before … Continue reading Quick Second for Math Night
This morning I read a beautiful article about “Creating a Sacred Space in Your Heart.” It was about really focusing on drinking tea, instead of just drinking it mechanically. If we focus on something, on a molecular level, we actually change that thing. I have read about this before from Patti Digh over at 37days. She first introduced me to the scientific concept of paying … Continue reading Focus Group, R & D, and Designing a Math Game
We get pretty excited over math night at our house. I know this is unusual. It hasn’t always been my most favorite thing in the world. In fact, I think I am like so many people who are either intimidated by math, bored by it, or just confused. Here’s the thing. My boys dig architecture, and building things. They have engineering and technology in their … Continue reading Excitement over Math Night and Getting to Play Games!
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 … Continue reading Bunny Trails of Fractions and Fractals
After the heaviness of the most recent dinnertime topic, it was a relief to get back to How Things Work again tonight. This time my husband jumped in, because I was trying to explain how a gear shifting mechanism works, simply based on a rudimentary understanding of the idea, without any real hands on experience. He let me flounder for only a minute, and then … Continue reading Shifting Gears back to Mechanics and Math
We pulled out the book, “What Your 3rd Grader Needs to Know” again last night to work on some Math. Somehow, reading Narnia before bed has taken precedence in last week or so over Random Educational Exploits. I say we get random, because, we always start with a certain part of the book that is talking about a specific thing we should know, and one thing leads … Continue reading Random Educational Exploits and The Tallest Building in the World
Last night at dinner, we got into a very complicated discussion about a design/build issue with the down-hill go-cart that Ben, our 8-years old is currently planning. I say we, but it was actually my husband and Ben working out the kinks in the design. At one point, my husband took his dinner plate and a knife to make a visual of a larger … Continue reading Thank Goodness my Husband Reads Blueprints!
What is fun about trying to enhance the educational process for my kids, without a real agenda, is that things tend to unfold based on what we talk about over dinner. Tonight, we got into a discussion about spy gadgets, devices, secret compartments, and innocent looking things that turn out to be weapons. Pretty soon, the boys were coming up with their own ideas of … Continue reading The Gadgets of 007 Count for Math Around Here
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 … Continue reading The Beauty of a Mind Lit Up with Joy
Tonight was a gift, pure and simple. It was an Art & Poetry night, and I had big plans for both the boys with new books to share with each of them. But first, Ben needed to get his Math homework done. This has been a challenge for his entire life of school. He is in 3rd grade, and as smart as he is and … Continue reading Picasso, the Apple-Faced Man, and Fireworks
We learned that the Ancient Greeks invented the Abacus. For some reason, I’d always thought it came from the Far East. Tonight for Math, I’d wanted to do some really cool math projects having to do with building engines, and understanding torque, and really amazing stuff that would interest my boys, but Ben didn’t want to do his standard issue math homework tonight with a … Continue reading Math in Ancient Greece
It’s only the beginning of the school year, and our gift and challenge is to try to make learning fun at home, because Ben (our 3rd-grader) is convinced that school is a waste of his time. After Day One, I Pinky-Sweared with him that if he would try to have a good attitude about school, and do his best, that his dad and I would … Continue reading Math Involved in Making an Engine
Ben has been building, drawing, creating various versions of Iron Man since he was three years old. He has watched Iron Man and Iron Man 2 a couple of times each. As I get caught up with photos, there will eventually be an entire category here on this blog of pictures of his creations. Hence, the idea that M.I.T. is where he wants to go … Continue reading Our Little Crush on the Whole Idea of M.I.T.
