The Roseberry Family - 2009

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book notes: The Glass Wall - Why Mathematics Can Seem Difficult

From time to time I enjoy reading books on how people - especially children - learn. Recently I read The Glass Wall by Frank Smith. Here are a couple of quotes I thought were notable:

One would think that language is something that is discovered by every child (or taught to every child). Yet studies of the rapidly efficient manner in which language skill and knowledge develop in children has led many researchers to assert that language is invented (or reinvented) by children rather than discovered by them or revealed to them. And no less a psychologist that Jean Piaget has asserted that children have to invent or reinvent mathematics in order to learn it. In a sense, the wheel is reinvented every time someone discovers what a wheel can do. p14-15

Memory, like understanding, is unavoidable in mathematics and everything else. Although mathematics might seem to be a constant process of "working things out", the foundation of any kind of mathematical enterprise is memory, and a great deal of learning mathematics involves committing mathematical facts and procedures to memory. Memory eases all of our way through mathematics and we can't get started without it. p113

Many kinds of difficulty confront learners. Locating these difficulties in the learner's brain and giving them pseudo-medical names is not helpful. Usually what is needed is more time, more understanding, more sensitivity, less pressure, a fundamentally different approach to mathematics education, stressing comprehension rather than memorization - and sometimes a period of mental convalescence. p135

He boiled mathematics to a relationship between numbers. In the simplest terms "one and one more". The rest of counting, for instance, is just a repeat of that method.

He gave several good reasons why memorization of facts is greatly aided by comprehension of the facts rather than just by rote.

make your own play-dough

The best and easiest play-dough recipe I've found:

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup salt
3/4 cup water (with food coloring)

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Add more water if needed or flour - you want a very stiff dough. With oiled hands, knead into soft dough.

The Mother at Home

Perhaps no book has been more encouraging, convicting and inspiring to me as a mother as John S. C. Abbott's book The Mother at Home. Read it online or buy it from Amazon. It will be time and money well spent.

what we're eating this summer

Making meals for the freezer has been such a HUGE help and blessing since we started homeschooling. Click the log to see what we're eating this summer and into the fall...

our journey with My Father's World

I've started a website where I'm organizing all my thoughts and resources for MFW Kindergarten and 1st grade this year. You can visit it at
https://sites.google.com/site/journeywithmfw/home

update for 2010-2011

This updates the post 2010 codeword: simplify

We be using the following materials for this year:

6y-son: My Father's World 1st Grade
4y-daughter: My Father's World Kindergarten

(We'll do the science from the K program together instead of doing 1st grade science.)

I decided not to purchase the Little Pim DVD's because I want the kids to learn Spanish verbally before trying to read the words. (Little Pim shows the word as it is being said.) I think that showing the kids the words can really throw a kink in their pronunciation. I found and like Professor Parrot. The kids just get to practice saying the words and singing in Spanish.

I also decided to wait on implementing the Five-in-a-Row program. If we see that we need something more, I will add it in later. Instead of buying the FIAR books, I will probably use the resources at Homeschool Share. I have already sketched out a few weeks of activities and I really like the free lapbook materials provided at HSS. I think this would be very helpful in teaching some history and geography.

I attended the local homeschool expo last weekend and it was VERY helpful to talk to the representatives from My Father's World and sit in on their classes. I'm excited about using their curriculum this year and for year's to come. So much of their philosophy of education completely meshes with mine. It's nice to find something already put together that is really something I want to use as-is. Just click the checkbox and a nice box of everything arrives at your door. Very cool indeed.