I think I’m going to make her her own category, called, In response to Gill. She poses such wonderful questions, that demand far more than a three line comment in response, and yet again, she’s pondering a subject that is near and dear to my heart, and has been a large part of my own ponderings over the past few days.
So run along and read her post about the number 0 and the comment thread, and most especially, the article that Dani links to. (No, the whole thing, the pdf. That was far too quick. Don’t worry, I’ll wait, I have a cup of tea 🙂 )
And finally, my thoughts.
That is a very wonderful article, and chimes beautifully with some ideas I’m having right now about how to continue with maths with my two. Big has already been reduced to belief that maths is hard (spit, swear) but an hour of looking at patterns the other day went a long way to redeeming her interest. I love mathematical patterns. I love maths. I want to understand all of it, and I’m sitting on the sofa right now with the first part of the first course that I’m taking from OU towards my maths degree.
And I’ve worked out what to do with Small next. We’re going to make our own bead material and our own number cards for place value – Montessori materials work precisely because they are so simple and invite children to explore ideas. I think if we make the materials together, that he will get to explore all sorts of patterns and relationships and probably figure out things I’ve never realised. It’s probably even better than just having access to all of it in a classroom, because in making them, you get to grips with them far more than if they are just sat around for you to pick up.
It all reminds me of a short story by Richard Back, about a flying school. Hm, wonder if I can find it online? Nope. It might be in this book A Gift of Wings
, not sure whether my copy is to hand to check.
Anyway, back to maths. You might want to look at the mathman. No, it’s not some series of books with a perky cartoon helper in the corner, it’s a guy who thinks that you can do calculus with young kids, and has got books suggesting how you do it. It’s the kind of problem that the bloke in this article is talking about, and I’m really looking forward to opening it up with the kids very soon. I bought it for school, but with my own money, and then never got around to it, as I didn’t have the courage I should have done. I did read The Number Devil
though, and that went down really well. It’s just all about thinking. Finding out for yourself, instead of having knowledge poured into you.
Oh, and it’s fun.
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