Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] math/magic---was testing the waters
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In a message dated 1/12/2003 12:05:21 AM Eastern Standard Time,
bunsofaluminum60@... writes:
little (read probably NONE) of the higher math I was "taught" in school.
{Now, Joyce will probably come along and give you ZILLIONS of ways I use
higher math every day. She'll just say that I don't KNOW I'm using it! <G>}
BUT. When I questioned why we had to take algebra, trig, calculus, my
teachers would always say that it exercises your brain on a higher plane.
Your point.
As for my children: thinking on a higher plane could means DOZENS of things!
Cameron was consumed by magic for two years. Magic, to me, is the ultimate in
"higher plane thinking". You've GOT to be contemplating things way above the
average person's thought processes (to be any good, anyway). He wasn't "just
doing tricks". He was doing card and coin manipulations (now you see it now
you don't) a la Jeff McBride, storytelling a la Eugene Berger, and and
characters a la Max Howard. It was amazing to see his thinking process
explode like that!
As for algebra---go to the race track! <G> Handicaps in racing are a
practical use of algebra.
Our favorite math game---hell our favorite GAME---is Zoombini's. Algebra,
logic, problem solving, strategy, calculus, all sorts of math junk---and it's
FUN! And you're NOT doing "number exercises"!
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
bunsofaluminum60@... writes:
> wholeheartedly BUT...the brain work that goes into learning andBeing a "non-mathie", I don't get too wanged out about math. I use VERY
> knowing how to do abstract number exercises like algebra, increases
> the ability of the brain to think about ANY subject. It's GOOD for
> the brain to "workout" by doing abstract stuff. And so, how would an
> unschooling family get algebra across to the kids?
little (read probably NONE) of the higher math I was "taught" in school.
{Now, Joyce will probably come along and give you ZILLIONS of ways I use
higher math every day. She'll just say that I don't KNOW I'm using it! <G>}
BUT. When I questioned why we had to take algebra, trig, calculus, my
teachers would always say that it exercises your brain on a higher plane.
Your point.
As for my children: thinking on a higher plane could means DOZENS of things!
Cameron was consumed by magic for two years. Magic, to me, is the ultimate in
"higher plane thinking". You've GOT to be contemplating things way above the
average person's thought processes (to be any good, anyway). He wasn't "just
doing tricks". He was doing card and coin manipulations (now you see it now
you don't) a la Jeff McBride, storytelling a la Eugene Berger, and and
characters a la Max Howard. It was amazing to see his thinking process
explode like that!
As for algebra---go to the race track! <G> Handicaps in racing are a
practical use of algebra.
Our favorite math game---hell our favorite GAME---is Zoombini's. Algebra,
logic, problem solving, strategy, calculus, all sorts of math junk---and it's
FUN! And you're NOT doing "number exercises"!
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 1/12/03 7:04:16 AM, kbcdlovejo@... writes:
<< Our favorite math game---hell our favorite GAME---is Zoombini's. Algebra,
logic, problem solving, strategy, calculus, all sorts of math junk---and it's
FUN! And you're NOT doing "number exercises"! >>
We have had Zoombinis for years, and the kids are all better at it than I am,
but
it's NOT math, it's just cartoons. It's just playing on the computer.
Because math looks like numbers, and there are no numerals anywhere in the
whole game. (Oh. Not counting that you have sixteen at a time and there's a
population count at the end, and you can only fill in so many in the
campground places...)
It's just playing.
Colors aren't math.
Hats and shoes aren't math.
(And I'm just playing and being sarcastic for shock effect, but what if
people learn something from just playing? There are articles online about
the depth of the mathematical experience of Zoombinis, but it works better if
the kids DON'T know that, and the moms don't need to know it either. If kids
knew what mathematical principles they were learning, they might not be
having NEARLY as much fun, so in the same way it doesn't make sense to kill
the goose to get the golden eggs out, don't kill a perfectly wonderful
golden-egg-laying computer game by cutting it open to find the math!)
Sandra
<< Our favorite math game---hell our favorite GAME---is Zoombini's. Algebra,
logic, problem solving, strategy, calculus, all sorts of math junk---and it's
FUN! And you're NOT doing "number exercises"! >>
We have had Zoombinis for years, and the kids are all better at it than I am,
but
it's NOT math, it's just cartoons. It's just playing on the computer.
Because math looks like numbers, and there are no numerals anywhere in the
whole game. (Oh. Not counting that you have sixteen at a time and there's a
population count at the end, and you can only fill in so many in the
campground places...)
It's just playing.
Colors aren't math.
Hats and shoes aren't math.
(And I'm just playing and being sarcastic for shock effect, but what if
people learn something from just playing? There are articles online about
the depth of the mathematical experience of Zoombinis, but it works better if
the kids DON'T know that, and the moms don't need to know it either. If kids
knew what mathematical principles they were learning, they might not be
having NEARLY as much fun, so in the same way it doesn't make sense to kill
the goose to get the golden eggs out, don't kill a perfectly wonderful
golden-egg-laying computer game by cutting it open to find the math!)
Sandra