Real life math resources?
Zoa Conner
I've got a friend, new to home learning, who would like a bit of help with
math. She got good grades in school math but never liked it and never saw a
point to most of it (she is smart is she not?!). Her ds9 has been in school
until this year and has a very poor image of himself due to his math
difficulties. He has chosen to work on his math skills since the fall. He is
feeling much more capable now but still sees little need to use the math.
They both thought if they could see how math is related to the world around
them that they might begin to see how useful math can be. Are there any
resources out there that might help my friends in their quest?
----------------
Zoa Conner, PhD
Physicist and Montessori Homeschooling Mother
zoaconner@...
math. She got good grades in school math but never liked it and never saw a
point to most of it (she is smart is she not?!). Her ds9 has been in school
until this year and has a very poor image of himself due to his math
difficulties. He has chosen to work on his math skills since the fall. He is
feeling much more capable now but still sees little need to use the math.
They both thought if they could see how math is related to the world around
them that they might begin to see how useful math can be. Are there any
resources out there that might help my friends in their quest?
----------------
Zoa Conner, PhD
Physicist and Montessori Homeschooling Mother
zoaconner@...
Lisa
There are tons of "reasons" for math... grocery shopping, sewing,
cooking, finances etc that are fairly easy to discover...heck you will
even do algebra in daily life now and then! Anyway if she is needing
help with ideas I do have a series of books I bought for my special
needs child called "Real World Math" by Carson Dellosa Publishing...
there's several in the series ...seems like there is one that is
grocery store math, mall math etc some are age graded to present the
material at that child's "level" etc.
I am constantly amazed at what my kids pick up in their daily lives
that shows them that math is everywhere. They haven't felt a need to
sit down and do math workbooks until high school age (on their own
decided to learn that SAT math) but found that much of it they
already knew just didn't know the terminology for what they had
naturally done.
Lisa Blocker
--
cooking, finances etc that are fairly easy to discover...heck you will
even do algebra in daily life now and then! Anyway if she is needing
help with ideas I do have a series of books I bought for my special
needs child called "Real World Math" by Carson Dellosa Publishing...
there's several in the series ...seems like there is one that is
grocery store math, mall math etc some are age graded to present the
material at that child's "level" etc.
I am constantly amazed at what my kids pick up in their daily lives
that shows them that math is everywhere. They haven't felt a need to
sit down and do math workbooks until high school age (on their own
decided to learn that SAT math) but found that much of it they
already knew just didn't know the terminology for what they had
naturally done.
Lisa Blocker
--
Karen Swanay
While not particularly "math in the real world" my 9 yr old "got" the
idea of budgeting in life by playing Star Wars Republic Commando? I'm
not sure of the name now, on the computer. (They have a lot of
different Star Wars games) but games like Civilization would also work
so would Zoo Tycoon or any of the Tycoon games. Liam learned about
budgeting resources from playing. If he needed war ships for a
planet, he had to build them somewhere else, and fly them to where he
needed them but while he was building war ships he couldn't build
anything else so he really had to think about what was important (RL:
bills and food) and what could wait (RL: recreation and toys) until he
had the things he needed built. And the games all have an economy so
there is math involved there too. It was the EASIEST way for it to
click for Liam. Because he was doing it and in control of it and he
saw what happened when he failed to allocate resources properly (for
the way his game was going and the goals he was trying to accomplish)
and so he'd end up replaying until he got it right and just one day we
were talking about money etc and he could explain it to me because of
the game. Much better for him to learn it himself one of those real
life lessons without it being real life you know? And it was fun for
him, PLUS now he understands the concept and can apply it to other
games he plays.
HTH
Karen
idea of budgeting in life by playing Star Wars Republic Commando? I'm
not sure of the name now, on the computer. (They have a lot of
different Star Wars games) but games like Civilization would also work
so would Zoo Tycoon or any of the Tycoon games. Liam learned about
budgeting resources from playing. If he needed war ships for a
planet, he had to build them somewhere else, and fly them to where he
needed them but while he was building war ships he couldn't build
anything else so he really had to think about what was important (RL:
bills and food) and what could wait (RL: recreation and toys) until he
had the things he needed built. And the games all have an economy so
there is math involved there too. It was the EASIEST way for it to
click for Liam. Because he was doing it and in control of it and he
saw what happened when he failed to allocate resources properly (for
the way his game was going and the goals he was trying to accomplish)
and so he'd end up replaying until he got it right and just one day we
were talking about money etc and he could explain it to me because of
the game. Much better for him to learn it himself one of those real
life lessons without it being real life you know? And it was fun for
him, PLUS now he understands the concept and can apply it to other
games he plays.
HTH
Karen
jenniferbreseman
Living Math: http://www.livingmath.net/
is a great resource. There are lots of ideas from curriculum to
games and literature. They have a discussion group too.
--- In [email protected], Zoa Conner <zoaconner@...>
wrote:
is a great resource. There are lots of ideas from curriculum to
games and literature. They have a discussion group too.
--- In [email protected], Zoa Conner <zoaconner@...>
wrote:
>help with
> I've got a friend, new to home learning, who would like a bit of
> math. She got good grades in school math but never liked it andnever saw a
> point to most of it (she is smart is she not?!). Her ds9 has beenin school
> until this year and has a very poor image of himself due to his mathfall. He is
> difficulties. He has chosen to work on his math skills since the
> feeling much more capable now but still sees little need to use themath.
> They both thought if they could see how math is related to theworld around
> them that they might begin to see how useful math can be. Are thereany
> resources out there that might help my friends in their quest?
> ----------------
> Zoa Conner, PhD
> Physicist and Montessori Homeschooling Mother
> zoaconner@...
>
Mark V Fullerton
<"I've got a friend, new to home learning, who would like a bit of help with
math. She got good grades in school math but never liked it and never saw a
point to most of it (she is smart is she not?!). Her ds9 has been in school
until this year and has a very poor image of himself due to his math
difficulties.">
There are a couple things I notice here: one is that it is the parent, and not the son who is
asking for help. Whether anything you suggest is going to be helpful or not is going to
depend on the context of their relationship. Is she an unschooling mother who seeking to
help him to follow up an interest or pursue an ambition? Or is she a school-at home
mother who is anxious about the fact that her son doesn't appear particularly interested in
learning or doing mathematics? If that is true then any "help" that you provide is likely to
be resented, and to persaude him not to like mathematics *permanently*.
The other is that you say that he "has a very poor image of himself due to his math
difficulties". Having diifficulty at math is a reason to be frustrated or disappointed, not to
have a poor image of yourself. We all have our particular talents; we just need to find out
what they are and to match them up with our interests. A better reason to feel good about
yourself is to feel that you have something to offer to the world. Even if her son were able
to improve his self-image by succeeding at learning some mathematics, what he would
have acquired is a rather fragile and I think ultimately harmful form of ego-based self-
image; a seemingly inevitable consequence would be to consider those less talented or
skillful than he to be unworthy, possibly even contemptible.
On the other hand, if you have a personal relationship with him and wish to simply pique
his interest, I would suggest that you show him Thales' proof that a triangle inscribed in a
circle whose base is a diameter of the circle is a right triangle. So far as we know it was
one of the first proofs ever given; and though it is incredibly simple it is to my mind
aesthetically spectacular. Also you can find some way of letting him know that you "know"
stuff, in a way that will seem relatively accessible to him - like being able to interpret the
images taken of Titan or Enceladeus perhaps. Or how about a puzzle: I learned from Jacob
Bronowski's "Ascent of Man" series that during the industrial revolution in 18th century
England, people were starting to do quite a lot of mining; and to go deeper they needed to
be able to pump the water out that would otherwise collect in the mines. During the
process of doing that they discovered that they could only pump the water upward by a
certain amount (32 ft. I think it was); then they would have to empty it into a container,
and set up another pump to get it up another 32 ft. and so on. It was a nice example of a
simple, quantitative pattern that the physicists were later able to explain. And in general: I
think the history of science and mathematics provides us with the simplest and most
accessible examples.
I got interested in science by first getting interested in science fiction around age 12; then
I browsed the science section of a local bookstore and found George Gamov's
"1,2,3...infinity." I spent a couple years in college as a Physics major before discovering
that actually I was more interested in storytelling (!)
math. She got good grades in school math but never liked it and never saw a
point to most of it (she is smart is she not?!). Her ds9 has been in school
until this year and has a very poor image of himself due to his math
difficulties.">
There are a couple things I notice here: one is that it is the parent, and not the son who is
asking for help. Whether anything you suggest is going to be helpful or not is going to
depend on the context of their relationship. Is she an unschooling mother who seeking to
help him to follow up an interest or pursue an ambition? Or is she a school-at home
mother who is anxious about the fact that her son doesn't appear particularly interested in
learning or doing mathematics? If that is true then any "help" that you provide is likely to
be resented, and to persaude him not to like mathematics *permanently*.
The other is that you say that he "has a very poor image of himself due to his math
difficulties". Having diifficulty at math is a reason to be frustrated or disappointed, not to
have a poor image of yourself. We all have our particular talents; we just need to find out
what they are and to match them up with our interests. A better reason to feel good about
yourself is to feel that you have something to offer to the world. Even if her son were able
to improve his self-image by succeeding at learning some mathematics, what he would
have acquired is a rather fragile and I think ultimately harmful form of ego-based self-
image; a seemingly inevitable consequence would be to consider those less talented or
skillful than he to be unworthy, possibly even contemptible.
On the other hand, if you have a personal relationship with him and wish to simply pique
his interest, I would suggest that you show him Thales' proof that a triangle inscribed in a
circle whose base is a diameter of the circle is a right triangle. So far as we know it was
one of the first proofs ever given; and though it is incredibly simple it is to my mind
aesthetically spectacular. Also you can find some way of letting him know that you "know"
stuff, in a way that will seem relatively accessible to him - like being able to interpret the
images taken of Titan or Enceladeus perhaps. Or how about a puzzle: I learned from Jacob
Bronowski's "Ascent of Man" series that during the industrial revolution in 18th century
England, people were starting to do quite a lot of mining; and to go deeper they needed to
be able to pump the water out that would otherwise collect in the mines. During the
process of doing that they discovered that they could only pump the water upward by a
certain amount (32 ft. I think it was); then they would have to empty it into a container,
and set up another pump to get it up another 32 ft. and so on. It was a nice example of a
simple, quantitative pattern that the physicists were later able to explain. And in general: I
think the history of science and mathematics provides us with the simplest and most
accessible examples.
I got interested in science by first getting interested in science fiction around age 12; then
I browsed the science section of a local bookstore and found George Gamov's
"1,2,3...infinity." I spent a couple years in college as a Physics major before discovering
that actually I was more interested in storytelling (!)
Mark V Fullerton
I want to apologize for the incredibly choppy appearance of my
previous post. As near as I can figure out, its due to an
incompatibility between the Safari browser on Mac and Yahoo groups.
I'm posting this on Firefox, still from Apple hardware, I'll see if
this makes a difference.
previous post. As near as I can figure out, its due to an
incompatibility between the Safari browser on Mac and Yahoo groups.
I'm posting this on Firefox, still from Apple hardware, I'll see if
this makes a difference.