My son finds the reasons for calculations-we don’t have to offer or come up with opportunities for practice. He also determines his item methods for calculation, asking for help when something is elusive. We have given all our kids Base 10 from the beginning, and this definitely informs how they calculate, especially in their heads. We don’t expect him to explain his methods, but sometimes he chooses to show us out of pure delight.
He will surpass our understanding of maths, and as he does, hopefully he’ll enjoy giving us his insight because we find Math’s offering fascinating (as composers~musicians, math is relevant to us as a beautiful visual explanation of the physics that music demonstrates in sound).
Never limiting to a subject category, we explore how math (along with all else) explains so much of our world, and now we’re delving into the challenges that humans are wrestling with where quantum mechanics and physics is requiring a broadening of the understanding of the interconnectedness that math can demonstrate. It’s like candy to him (only better because he doesn’t like sweets).
We have enjoyed Benjamin Arthur’s, “Mental Math” thoroughly, and Rowan plays games that require computational approaches for navigation (sailing) and construction (redstone engineering in Minecraft, as an example). He’s also very aware of money and so he helps us reconcile our biz books, has a bank account and actively manages it, and is learning investment principles and opportunities. Yesterday our conversation was about how percentages work in terms of leverage (he opened a new high yield savings account and asked why the bank would pay him to put his money with them, so we discussed).
His new bank account is with a bank that shares his name. He’s excited, he’s gaining 5% APR.