Luckybeans

Numbers at Nine

Asher used to love math and playing with numbers. I did a lot of math activities with the children in Malawi, as I felt that they weren't given a great introduction to really understanding numbers and how to play with them and observe them in daily life. In my own experience, math was either my favourite subject or the most detested. I really wanted my children to learn to enjoy numbers and math, so I tried to be proactive. 

Now the children are at school all day, and the younger two have a math program that basically consists of self-paced worksheets. Ugh. Ana has started an integrated math program for high school that she enjoys, but Asher has come to have a less than warm response to all things mathematical. I also saw that he has forgotten a lot of what he once knew. I do love the children's school, as do they, but the math program is really a gaping weakness. So. This break, Asher and I are starting from scratch and reviewing what he should know and be comfortable with as a third grader. I thought I would share what we do as it might be helpful for others.

We began with a review of the basic properties of the digits 0-9. We looked at several a day (I wouldn't do this if I were introducing them), and made a page about each one. Some days he was feeling more artistically inclined than others, but we got through. :) We talked about a lot more than what I list (and what we drew) below, especially over the course of time. But this gives you a few ideas to begin with. I'm starting with 0-3 today, and will upload more as I have the chance. 

Zero

Zero is potential. It is the point of generation, and what allows growth and decline, addition and subtraction, positive and negative, to take place. Sometimes it is thought of as a mere place holder, but I like to go a bit Zen with it. Far more exciting (and accurate, really).

One

One is fascinating as it is both underlying unity of form and uniqueness simultaneously. We looked at both the individual and the oneness of humanity; the unity of God; the earth, peace (Asher's idea), and in terms of geometry, globes and circles. It is both infinitely divisible and inherently whole.

Two

Two illustrates balance and equality. Like the yin and yang, two apparant opposites provide stability and completion. We talked about many of these "opposites"  and why we need both of them (life and death, dark and light, male and female, material and spiritual,night and day, sciences and arts). We discussed the force generated by the attraction of these two "opposing" elements, as found in the power of electricity between two poles, or the love between two people. We also looked at binary and morse code, and the ability for communication and complexity latent in the simplicity of duality.

Three

Three is the beginning of complexity, mulitplicity and diversity. Three can be found in the family, in musical harmony, and the primary colours. The geometry of three is expressed in triangles, and can be found in natural examples such as the life cycle of frogs and newts, trillium leaves and flowers and clover. 

I hope this is helpful for you! Or at least interesting. Numbers are fun, dag nabbit.

 

Quite Quiet

Around here, we have been keeping fairly low profiles. Calmer days with lots of board games, puzzles, and reading. Visits with family and friends.

Grandma is back from St. Lucia, and Bella has gone to have a sleepover. Asher and I went to a birthday party that involved caring for cats and playing with dogs at the humane Society. Ana has gone to an intensive Ruhi Book One. Four out of five have seen the Hobbit.

We've decorated cookies, coloured, written letters and praticed our math. Not a lot to report, really, but we are enjoying one another nonetheless. I hope you are also finding the time to slow down and relax a bit these dark winter days.

 

 

Lately

Sunday night there was an enormous wind storm. Branches and bits were strewn far and wide.

Asher and I bundled up on Monday afternoon, grabbed a basket, and decided to see what we could see.

He certainly found plenty: he said I ought to call this picture "A Nine Year Old's Treasure." 

We wandered up to the water tower (as we so often do) and spent a long time getting very cold and wet floating his walnut boat down the little stream. 

Our basket filled with treasure, too.

Yesterday the children had no school as there were trees and ice on the road.

Bella did a puzzle upside down.

Ana painted tiny beads to make a Percy Jackson necklace.

Asher gave Snowy a bath.

You may have noticed that Asher and Bella are wearing new knit hats. One of the students at their school has a grandfather who is housebound, so he knit a hat for every single student at the school.

There is so much good in the world, if we just remember how to find it.

 

Disappearance

It happens sometimes. Straight from Thanksgiving into dead week, finals, and a virus that landed me in bed for a full week. And the first day I made it out of bed, it was to the news of the Connecticut shootings. And then what can I say? 

I know many mamas do not want to discuss the tragedy with their children, and I understand this. I do. But I also know that this has never been my own parenting approach, so I thought maybe I would reflect a bit on why.

We moved to Zambia when my girls were very small. Asher was born there. My children have grown up knowing clearly what poverty looks like, what hunger and AIDS and not having shoes or school fees or vaccinations looks like. They learned from a very early age to be gracious, to be grateful, to be generous. And also to be guarded, because this world, for all its wonder and beauty, is hard. When we were in Malawi there was a measles outbreak, and many elderly and young died. Of measles. My children heard all about it because relatives of people we knew died. And they knew there were peope queueing up outside clinics (the same clinics they went to) for medicine that didn't come. That would never come.

I suppose I could have protected them many many times in their young lives. I could have wrapped them in the warmth of my love and vision, and eased in them into this shocking world. But the truth is, I want them to be able to see this world with clear eyes, to love more fiercely, to dedicate their lives and hearts to serving their fellow man because they know exactly what the cost is if they don't. If we all don't.

Friday afternoon, my children went straight from school to do what they always do: Asher went to children's class, Ana taught one, Bella joined her Junior Youth Group in a pre-planned service project. That night, when we discussed the shooting as a family,  I didn't have answers to all of their questions because there are no answers to these questions. But I was able to tell them that they are helping this miserable world. They are actively participating in building community, in reaching out and involving others, in using all they have been given to construct a reality that is new, hopeful and moving forward. That slowly, slowly, others join them and these little sparks of light and goodness spread and grow, and they are the ones fanning these fragile flames. While their hearts were breaking, I could hold them close and tell them that their driving desire to love and serve is all they can do, and even though it will never feel like it, it is enough. 

I look at them, and I know without question that the weight of the world is on their shoulders. This is what it means to be human. I see their compassion, their dedication to justice, the tenderness of their hearts, how desperately fragile but uncompromisingly strong they are. And there can be nothing more beautiful in all this world.

We weep, we pray, we grieve. And then we pick ourselves back up and love more deeply and serve more faithfully, and while the path will never be easy, it is good. I think of all of those who have come before us, and all of those who are yet to come, and we all do what little we can for all of them, in gratitude.

I am not saying that how we have done things is the only way, or the best way. I am not offering these words as any sort of judgement or set of instructions for anyone else. This is simply the path that unfolded before us, and we have done our best to negotiate it with grace and wisdom and love. And I am so humbled to see these children before me who are still tender saplings, but who can withstand the mightiest and most terrible of storms.

Sorry for the lack of photos, and for any incoherence on my part. Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon. In the meantime, breathe deeply, have a cup of tea, and "look upon thy neighbor with a bright and friendly face."

With love. K.