Our yesterday, with the 7 year old: Breakfast over the Lego Movie in Hindi She built a snowcat while watching and eating, I worked on cleaning out our greenhouse/workshop and prepared the yard for the impending freeze. By 11am we were discussing the angles cut into pieces of wood (trim) that I was […]
Minecraft, It Is
This past weekend, we launched our first ever, private Minecraft world that we’re hosting. It’s been offered to a group of young kids from the WLU community and we’ve set it as Creative only. The kids (about 30 of them, ranging from 4 to 15, with all but two of them are under 11) are […]
Intuitive Guide to Angles, Degrees and Radians
Intuitive Guide to Angles, Degrees and Radians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grad_(angle) It’s an obvious fact that circles should have 360 degrees. Right? Wrong. Most of us have no idea why there’s 360 degrees in a circle. We memorize a magic number as the “size of a circle” and set ourselves up for confusion when studying advanced math or physics, with […]
On Electronic Media and the Jicarilla Apache
Perhaps I’m in the current trend minority, but I don’t see any benefit to limiting electronics access. Here’s my experience: By 14 months old, as a result of the screen, various devices, and my engaged involvement with my daughter, she was fluent in ASL, had 700+ signs, and the words (verbally) to go with them. […]
Lily Sees $$
A few days ago Lily and I explored US currency. We also explored the amazing power of ZERO! Yesterday, as we were discussing her age, and how many months vs a fraction of year she has accomplished (using hair bands no less), she demonstrated her understanding and complete comprehension of adding with single digits and then […]
Houses, Castles, & Questions
I’ve decided that to best keep track of my own mind, as well as attempt to record the finer points of Lily’s development and her day, that I really have to just leave a post window open all day long. I see it, I write, I add pics, whatever… Today began with Lily showing us […]
Houses, Castles, & Questions
I’ve decided that to best keep track of my own mind, as well as attempt to record the finer points of Lily’s development and her day, that I really have to just leave a post window open all day long. I see it, I write, I add pics, whatever… Today began with Lily showing us […]
STEM, Optics First, Robots Next
After learning about the STEM program at our local university a few weeks ago, I spoke with Lily about her interest and upon her request began the process of trying to get her accepted, given that the requirement was a minimum of 4th grade. As we are not utilizing “grades” and she already meets about […]
Stairs
Have you ever tried to build a stair case, or even a couple steps where there were none? If you haven’t tried, unless you are just inordinately gifted in geometry, especially if you’re too stubborn to follow a simple math formula, then you have NO CLUE how challenging it is (if you want them straight […]