Thursday Randomness

HAPPY MATH:  As I've documented here, over the summer I took an online course through Stanford featuring professor Jo Boaler and her awesome approach to math education.

As wonderful as it was, the course paralyzed me, in a way. I delayed busting out the predictable, very standard approach Singapore Math book this fall. Don't get me wrong, it's a VERY good standard approach math book. But it is what it is. When we did get it out, the kids and I rather miserably and mindlessly slogged through the first few pages before I declared, "No mas!"

Instead, I resourced Jo Boaler's list, and found a book called "The Amazing Mathematical Amusement Arcade." We ordered it and today we started in on the first page. Such fun!

The first problem involved a graphic with nine sticks used to make four equilateral triangles. You were supposed to take three away, and with the remaining sticks make four equilateral triangles. How is this possible?!?!

At first, the kids labored to make a modified version of the example in the book, on the flat. There were starts and stops and before long, we were asking ourselves, "What would Captain Kirk do?"

After about 10 minutes of frustration, I told them I'd give them a clue. "Think outside the ..."

"Box!" Annabelle finished my sentence.

"No," I corrected. "Think outside the CUBE."

I could see lightbulbs go off. Suddenly, the challenge became 3-D. But that didn't mean they were right right off the bat. ...

As you can see, Annabelle used too many sticks and definitely does NOT have four equilateral triangles.

But before long, they each solved the puzzle.

After that, it was on to a classic quandary - one I remember solving when I was about their age. A man had to get across the river with his goat, a head of cabbage, and a wolf. He had a boat, but couldn't leave the goat with the cabbage or the wolf with the goat. How did he manage it?

The kids talked about it for a couple of minutes with no solution. I told them I'm a visual learner, and prefer to look at a problem. So, we got out a boat (book mark), a man (a spool of thread), a wolf (a packet of Taco Bell hot sauce), a goat (an eraser) and a head of cabbage (some Play-Doh). Our scenario is pictured atop the blog.

The kids worked through a few scenarios before hitting upon a solution. I think our primitive mock up helped. :)

Afterward, we talked about how these challenges involved sequencing, logic, non-linear thinking and other elements of great value when working math problems. "They're about math SENSE," I told the kids, thinking Professor Jo Boaler would have been proud of me, LOL.

They both practically begged to do more problems from the book. That's a good sign. :)

THE ONE AND ONLY: Last weekend, the kids and I cleaned out our big raised bed at the top of the lot. In the process we harvest the one and only pumpkin our garden produced.

Take a look. It's the orange thing, about the size of a navel orange. It kinda looks like a Walla Walla onion in this photo.

Problem is, the seed packet from whence the pumpkin sprang said something about it being The Biggest Pumpkin in the History of Big Pumpkins, or some such thing.

Grossly false advertising.

MAVEN MINUTE: Today, we watched a new PSA hosted by Reading Rainbow/Star Trek TNG star LeVar Burton all about NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, set to launch next week.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission is set to reach the Red Planet in Sept. of 2014, with a mission of helping solve "the mystery of the missing atmosphere," reports Burton. Check out the quick overview of the mission here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijAO0FFExx0


Annabelle reminded me today that our names will be on board that spacecraft, as we participated in NASA's "Going to Mars" program. We even wrote haikus for the occasion. Today, we checked out the 'winning' haikus. I was glad to see my favorite one at the top:

It’s funny, they named
Mars after the God of War
Have a look at Earth

Benedict Smith
United Kingdom

GOLDMINE:  CJ was a non stop source of bemusement today. First up was around 10 this morning. I noticed he was chewing and asked the obvious question: "What are you chewing?"

"Gum," he deadpanned. Anticipating my next question, "Where did you get it?" since I hadn't given him any, CJ went ahead and confessed, "To be honest, it's from yesterday.  It was in my pocket."

All together now: :"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww"

A bit later I was moaning about my current illness, which CJ is also coming down with. CJ quickly dubbed it "The Rick Virus" and called his oldest brother "Patient Zero," LOL.

This afternoon, we had a car load of things to donate and were headed across the Ballard Bridge to Goodwill. We were also going to stop at Fred Meyer, and I recalled, aloud, that there's a Salvation Army donation truck in their parking lot, and suggested we could kill two birds with one stone.

"Ah, ah, ah," CJ immediately piped up from the backseat. "They are NOT LGBT friendly, and we do not support them."

And so, my backseat conscience shamed me into going that extra mile, literally, to Goodwill.

After Goodwill, back to Fred Meyer we went. I told the kids our first stop was the toy aisle, in search of dinosaurs. I explained to them I had recently read several posting on the Internet about this phenomenon called Dinovember, where toy dinosaurs come to life overnight during November.

Apparently a skeptic, CJ replied, "I think it's more likely that I would get struck by lightning and win the lottery at the exact same nanosecond while reciting the Quran in classical Arabic and reading the complete biography of Kim Il-sung than it is that inanimate objects suddenly popping to life."

Hmph. Just wait until tomorrow, CJ, ye of little faith.