video games and math
Tress Miles
I just needed to share this with someone who understands. My daughter who
is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
process.
Tress, mom to Lillie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
process.
Tress, mom to Lillie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
chris ester
I have two teenaged children who have never been to school and I sometimes
still feel the challenge of letting go of my schoolishness. I can say that
I get a real sense of pride when my kids set the limits on my schoolish
outlook. I feel like I must be doing something right when either my 15 yo
or my 13 yo will respectfully point out that I am reacting to my own inner
fears and not to a genuine need to learn and grow that is natural and
inherit in all of us.
I love that my kids are continually surprising and informing me. The other
day my son taught me a bunch about the Napoleonic Wars and my daughter is
the resident music history resource.
Chris
still feel the challenge of letting go of my schoolishness. I can say that
I get a real sense of pride when my kids set the limits on my schoolish
outlook. I feel like I must be doing something right when either my 15 yo
or my 13 yo will respectfully point out that I am reacting to my own inner
fears and not to a genuine need to learn and grow that is natural and
inherit in all of us.
I love that my kids are continually surprising and informing me. The other
day my son taught me a bunch about the Napoleonic Wars and my daughter is
the resident music history resource.
Chris
On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 11:32 PM, Tress Miles <milesdt@...> wrote:
> **
>
>
> I just needed to share this with someone who understands. My daughter who
> is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
> 13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
> add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
> her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
> herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
>
> I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
> process.
>
> Tress, mom to Lillie
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
My children do it that way too :) As a child I was taught to memorize. Our
children figure it out themselves the right way. I have also noticed that
our children hold a pencil differently than we were "taught."
Cindy
Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
-----Original message-----
From: Tress Miles <milesdt@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sat, Nov 12, 2011 04:32:47 GMT+00:00
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] video games and math
I just needed to share this with someone who understands. My daughter who
is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
process.
Tress, mom to Lillie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
children figure it out themselves the right way. I have also noticed that
our children hold a pencil differently than we were "taught."
Cindy
Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
-----Original message-----
From: Tress Miles <milesdt@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sat, Nov 12, 2011 04:32:47 GMT+00:00
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] video games and math
I just needed to share this with someone who understands. My daughter who
is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
process.
Tress, mom to Lillie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
-=-I have also noticed that
our children hold a pencil differently than we were "taught."-=-
The pencil-holding position goes back to dipping quill pens in ink pots. There was a purpose to that grip and that angle when the pen was fragile and kept needing to be dipped, wiped, and the ink can only flow right if the edge of the pen touches the paper at the proper angle.
Then it became "gentility" and "the right way," but in an age of pencils, ballpoints, felt tips and gel pens, any angle will do!
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
our children hold a pencil differently than we were "taught."-=-
The pencil-holding position goes back to dipping quill pens in ink pots. There was a purpose to that grip and that angle when the pen was fragile and kept needing to be dipped, wiped, and the ink can only flow right if the edge of the pen touches the paper at the proper angle.
Then it became "gentility" and "the right way," but in an age of pencils, ballpoints, felt tips and gel pens, any angle will do!
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Joy
Yes my son (who just turned 6) did 25+25 by doing (20+20)+(5+5) because he knew 20+20and 5+5 already.
I am guessing He learned from minecraft and terraria and other sources. Definitely different from the way I was taught. I remember a class of 30 student "chanted" the multiplication table every morning when I was in elementary school in china :)
Jihong
Sent from my iPhone
I am guessing He learned from minecraft and terraria and other sources. Definitely different from the way I was taught. I remember a class of 30 student "chanted" the multiplication table every morning when I was in elementary school in china :)
Jihong
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 11, 2011, at 10:32 PM, Tress Miles <milesdt@...> wrote:
> I just needed to share this with someone who understands. My daughter who
> is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
> 13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
> add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
> her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
> herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
>
> I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
> process.
>
> Tress, mom to Lillie
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Wimvisser
Just to share also, about my 12 year old, who I still don't really relate to as a reader, i hadn't given it alot of thought but i still assumed he was in the early stages of figuring words out, I rarely witness aloud reading.... Loads of minecraft and obviously comprehension as he follows instructions but as I've not tested him, nor taught him, I tend to underestimate the leaps and bounds with which he has improved in the last year or so. We were watching a programme tonight where the word
Sphygmomanometer
Was put on the screen for a few seconds, I was just kicking my brain into gear to figure out the sound the first 5 letters made, and was beginning to pronounce it when my son said the word, correctly, it took him about a second after appearing on the screen. And he didnt say it slowly like i was about to. I was well surprised! I honestly, given our early attempts at schooling, expected he would struggle with reading and whilst I knew he had unlocked words for himself I still thought he was at a very basic level and sounding out of new words would be slow.
Just another surprised mums story.
Sallyanne
Sent from my iPod
Sphygmomanometer
Was put on the screen for a few seconds, I was just kicking my brain into gear to figure out the sound the first 5 letters made, and was beginning to pronounce it when my son said the word, correctly, it took him about a second after appearing on the screen. And he didnt say it slowly like i was about to. I was well surprised! I honestly, given our early attempts at schooling, expected he would struggle with reading and whilst I knew he had unlocked words for himself I still thought he was at a very basic level and sounding out of new words would be slow.
Just another surprised mums story.
Sallyanne
Sent from my iPod
On 12/11/2011, at 5:32 PM, Tress Miles <milesdt@...> wrote:
> I just needed to share this with someone who understands. My daughter who
> is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
> 13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
> add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
> her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
> herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
>
> I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
> process.
>
> Tress, mom to Lillie
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
JustSayin
Regarding the chanting of multiplication tables: if you are someone without a reliable memory, memorizing is absolutely the worst way to learn something. I wonder how many others have this "problem". I know it's not an ideal way for anyone to learn, but if you can't rely on your memory, it can be pretty scary if that's the only tool you are given. I was always able to manage well in other areas, because I always knew how to find information, and I was able to make sense of the subjects in other ways. But to this day I struggle and laugh off my lack of ability with math. I just can't think about it reasonably or logically - which is how I go about everything else - that logic as far as math is concerned was long ago programmed out, and frankly, I feel "disabled" (in math) because of it. Thankfully my kids don't/won't have that disability.
Regarding how to hold a pen being based on the use of a quill pen 100 years ago: once you back away and look at what I like to call the "school myth" objectively, it makes it a little easier to look around and see what else might be a myth, or at least no longer applicable. Amazing how little we (as a society) question the "whys" of our practices. In my working life, if I questioned a practice, and the response I got was "because that's the way we've always done it", it was a red flag for me to examine and usually change that practice. In society, examination or change in certain areas is scarier than the comfort of "we've always done it this way".
--Melissa C.
Regarding how to hold a pen being based on the use of a quill pen 100 years ago: once you back away and look at what I like to call the "school myth" objectively, it makes it a little easier to look around and see what else might be a myth, or at least no longer applicable. Amazing how little we (as a society) question the "whys" of our practices. In my working life, if I questioned a practice, and the response I got was "because that's the way we've always done it", it was a red flag for me to examine and usually change that practice. In society, examination or change in certain areas is scarier than the comfort of "we've always done it this way".
--Melissa C.
--- In [email protected], "luvkadcl@..." <luvkadcl@...> wrote:
>
> My children do it that way too :) As a child I was taught to memorize. Our
> children figure it out themselves the right way. I have also noticed that
> our children hold a pencil differently than we were "taught."
> Cindy
>
> Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
>
> -----Original message-----
> From: Tress Miles <milesdt@...>
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Sat, Nov 12, 2011 04:32:47 GMT+00:00
> Subject: [AlwaysLearning] video games and math
>
> I just needed to share this with someone who understands. My daughter who
> is 9 and doesn't read yet was playing Terraria and needed to add 99 and
> 13. She thought about it a minute and said, "If you take one from 13 and
> add it to 99, you get 100. Then 100 plus 12 is 112!" I was sitting beside
> her at the computer watching this process. She came up with the strategy
> herself. I didn't open my mouth, except to be stunned!
>
> I was a teacher for 27 years. Deschooling myself is proving to be a LONG
> process.
>
> Tress, mom to Lillie
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Sandra Dodd
-=-Regarding how to hold a pen being based on the use of a quill pen 100 years ago: -=-
Quill pen 300 years ago. Manufactured nibs for a while after that.
When I was in elementary school, there were still some old wooden desks in the oldest building that had a hole for holding an ink well, and a groove next to it, vertically on the desk top, not horizontally like a pencil slot. From the basement, when I was a teacher, I liberated a teacher's classroom-sized bottle of ink, with a lid for pouring into little inkwells. I guess they got the rest back in with a funnel; didn't see an ink-stained funnel there.
Memorizing times tables and perfectly round penmanship have to do with clerks who might work in businesses keeping ledgers, adding and subtracting deposits, payments, debits and charges, by hand, in books that would be legal records, and entered and read by others for decades. Artsy personalized writing was no good. It wasn't personal.
A good use of schools, in the 19th century, was for a place where kids could see maps and globes. Those didn't exist outside of schools, libraries or rich houses.
Yesterday, easy as pie, I looked up the Harry Potter Adventure park in Orlando. I just started entering that, and google filled in the rest, and I zoomed in and looked at a satellite image of the buildings. Labelled image.
Encyclopedias, at schools. We had one at our house, but from like 1954, so I loved that the school library and sometimes a classroom had newer ones. I would read them for fun. When my kids were little I bought one, so it's 1989 or whatever. :-) I have them as curiosities, but they're not worth opening when there's google at hand. Memorizing spellings and spelling rules seems an ancient relic when people are writing at their computers, with spellcheckers and (again) google to say "do you mean..." when you spell something wrong. :-)
Life has changed.
School has not, except to become more entrenched and self-defending.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Quill pen 300 years ago. Manufactured nibs for a while after that.
When I was in elementary school, there were still some old wooden desks in the oldest building that had a hole for holding an ink well, and a groove next to it, vertically on the desk top, not horizontally like a pencil slot. From the basement, when I was a teacher, I liberated a teacher's classroom-sized bottle of ink, with a lid for pouring into little inkwells. I guess they got the rest back in with a funnel; didn't see an ink-stained funnel there.
Memorizing times tables and perfectly round penmanship have to do with clerks who might work in businesses keeping ledgers, adding and subtracting deposits, payments, debits and charges, by hand, in books that would be legal records, and entered and read by others for decades. Artsy personalized writing was no good. It wasn't personal.
A good use of schools, in the 19th century, was for a place where kids could see maps and globes. Those didn't exist outside of schools, libraries or rich houses.
Yesterday, easy as pie, I looked up the Harry Potter Adventure park in Orlando. I just started entering that, and google filled in the rest, and I zoomed in and looked at a satellite image of the buildings. Labelled image.
Encyclopedias, at schools. We had one at our house, but from like 1954, so I loved that the school library and sometimes a classroom had newer ones. I would read them for fun. When my kids were little I bought one, so it's 1989 or whatever. :-) I have them as curiosities, but they're not worth opening when there's google at hand. Memorizing spellings and spelling rules seems an ancient relic when people are writing at their computers, with spellcheckers and (again) google to say "do you mean..." when you spell something wrong. :-)
Life has changed.
School has not, except to become more entrenched and self-defending.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]