Today, while doing chores, I listened to a book on tape from the library called, “How the Universe got its Spots.” (This is a link to the Amazon book, because I couldn’t link to the book on tape for some reason.) The gifted young cosmologist Janna Levin sets out to determine the size of the universe, along the way providing an intimate look at the … Continue reading On Motherhood, Physics and Relativity
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
Yesterday, after completing Tax Season, and being home again, I was able to finally put into place our new Eat Art feature. Ben and I figured it out on one of our recent walks. We decided on the following schedule for feeding ourselves a rich diet of Art. Monday – Murals Tuesday – The Universe Wednesday – Wonders of the World Thursday – Theater … Continue reading Big, Giant Love and the Theatrics and Science to Make it Happen
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
Ah – the glories of learning off the computer! Could there be a more exhilarating way to see in a quick moment all the geometric wonders involved in those wonderful Cathedral windows of old? (Perhaps it is because I have learned to love Math so very much, that this is so astounding to me!) This week for our Art Day on Wednesday, we looked at … Continue reading Rose Window Geometry
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
Whatever you may believe about the formations of crop circles, whether they are made by pranksters or by some other means; to put any time into studying them, proves they are not easy to dismiss as silliness. In the book, Sacred Geometry, by Stephen Skinner, the author shares that most crop circles are based entirely on Euclidean geometry. A quick Google search of the phrase crop … Continue reading Bird’s Eye View, Crop Circles and What Aliens Must Think of Us
This may or may not circle around to making any sense. It is the middle of the night, I am finally not exhausted, and I am feeling philosophical. Ben said an interesting thing yesterday about buses being so heavy that he worried about the earth’s ability to stay in orbit during certain times of the day when there are buses everywhere. He was worried about us … Continue reading The Gravitational Pull of Home and Hearth and Ideas
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
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
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
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.
