September 23, 2003

Claire's sleepover birthday party

Posted by Scott at 06:45 AM

Has it really been nearly a week since I last wrote? Time flies! I guess the kids have kept us busy....

Claire's sleepover birthday party - Friday around 4PM a handful of Claire's friends came over to celebrate Claire's 8th birthday. Michelle had them work on a craft for a while and then Claire opened her presents. On my way home I picked up pizzas for their dinner. After eating the birthday cake, I took the girls candlepin bowling while Michelle stayed home with the boys. What a trip! Six girls between the ages of five and eight all attempting to do candlepin. At least the scoring was simple. When we got home they played some Mario Party 4 on Gamecube and later watched Drew Barrymore in Ever After on DVD. Somewhere around 10:30 Michelle warned the girls that the boys were going to be up 6AM whether the girls got any sleep or not. Luckily they soon settled down and weren't too cranky the following morning.

Saturday, the true insanity - Saturday I took Claire to her gymnastics class and did some shopping for some slacks. I haven't bought clothes for myself in some time but I've had several pairs develop holes in the knees. Must be all that manly work I do in them : pounding out Perl, slamming out VHDL, cranking some HTML. ugh, Ugh, UGH! Yeah that's how the pants wore out! ;-> After I picked up Claire we shared a quick father-daughter lunch at Amatos New York style deli where I introduced her to the awesome taste of a good Reuben sandwich. Amatos makes some of the best Reuben sandwiches in the Nashua area. And you get service with a hint of NY "attitude".

Saturday afternoon we decided to take the kids with us to Darrell's Music Hall to look at their line of Yamaha Clavinova's. Man! They are so cool! Wow! What a nightmare taking five kids under the age of eight into a store full of pianos. The salesman, busy though he was at the moment, was nice and gave us a decent demo considering all the distractions we were fighting. When we left we hung out by the Nashua river for a short spell to let them get some sun and air. We then decided that since it was getting close to 5:30 and we were already in downtown Nashua, we should head over to Mass rather than drive them all back early the next morning. In the church's cry room among the books and toys there was a single little toy train. Just one. I thought the boys were going to burst! It's one of the most common causes of strife at this age. Even though they have plenty of toys, they are always in competition over the same "toy of the moment".

Sunday - Sunday we again had nice weather. Michelle and I spent some time working on the lawn. I think Michelle was a bit concerned because dad (Mr. Horticulture) will be here in a few days. Now that the days aren't as long and hot, the lawn is finally looking about as good as it did this spring.

Monday - Yesterday was a long day. I helped Michelle get all the kids out the door so that she could teach step aerobics. I also attended a step class later during my lunch break. Michelle and I didn't see each other again until late in the evening. She had to take Abby to her gymnastics class while I had to attend a session the Milford schools were holding to discuss their new program for math instruction. It is based on the successful "Everyday Math" program. I looked it over and like it. It teaches the kids to have more intuition about numbers like engineers and scientists tend to. For instance, rather than learning one carry/borrow method for manipulating numbers, they learn how to re-group the numbers so that you can do the arithmetic in your head. They do a lot to apply the math to the real world so that it isn't math in the abstract. They also have a spiral approach where several concepts from geometry and algebra get introduced and reviewed over and over in the course of the years. Overall I like it because it gives them more of a "feel" for numbers, like I think of them. It makes math more than rote table and method memorization. It seems to make things more interesting and challenging in a fun and almost creative way.

Comments

Hey there! We are back on line with DSL!
Glad Claire's party went well. I can relate to girl sleepovers- it's always nice thenext morning when they all leave!
I taught that math program to 1st graders- it works! It's definitely different then what/how we learned. What grades will use it? It really helps if it is carried out for more than a few grade levels.
TJ gets his cast off this afternoon, so I have lots to get done before we go to the doctor- just wanted to check in!
Alyssa

Posted by: alyssa at September 23, 2003 12:25 PM

Scott,

As someone who has TAUGHT Everyday math for the past 3 years, I can tell you it has some serious downsides. It looks great on paper.... but, the basics just aren't there in the program.

I hope it works better for your kids than it has for mine (inner city 2nd graders). It has become more of a way for the kids to have "cruches" than learn the basics of math.

Yes, there are some things I really like about Everyday Math- I just don't think it should be the only program used in the classroom.

Just my 2 cents.

Erica

Posted by: Erica at September 24, 2003 08:34 PM

Hi Erica and Alyssa,

In reviewing the books and giving us some examples of the program, I can see how it might be both ways. As an engineer it comes natural to many of us to do the "tricks", methods or algorithms that program demonstrates.

I came away with a few thoughts.

First, if you came from the "tried and true" method of learning math, without any prior exposure to this, it could blow your mind. I wouldn't put a fourth grader into this without some preparation. If it's going to be used at all, it needs to be built upon at an early age.

Second, if the parents aren't ready for this, it could limit the help they provide if the parents don't seek these ways out.

Third, of the techniques presented that night, more than one parent said, "well, which is the right/best way?". I'm convinced some people have that kind of temperment. They want one way. They want it cut and dry -- one size fits all. I had classmates in high school physics who wanted physics to be reduced to solving one equation. They couldn't handle the fact that most high school physics problems require the usage of multiple formulas and laws in concert. When Michelle was taking a remedial algebra course, she complained a lot about word problems. "I can do the math. I just can't do these word problems!" Unfortunately no employer I've seen pays to solve straight agebraic equations. The equations derive from real world problems.

Certainly I think it's important to have an intuition about numbers. I developed my own along the way but I don't think it was due to the math programs I had. But I'm convinced my intuition was what led me to score so well between 7th and 12th grades.

So yes, I can see pros and cons. I'm just happy when math stops being an abstraction and gets connected to real life.

Posted by: Scott at September 24, 2003 10:54 PM

Who is Erica and was she trying to condescend Alyssa because she TAUGHT it and Alyssa only taught it? Better not be.

Posted by: Suzy at September 25, 2003 01:06 PM

Hi Suzy,

Erica was a classmate of Alyssa's and Michelle's at SMWC. Sometimes it's hard to remember that Michelle and Alyssa went to school together, even though they overlapped for only one semester. Of course, I'm glad they did because otherwise I likely would not have met Michelle. Around the time Alyssa and Jeannie left SMWC, Michelle became good friends with Erica and Jamie, who resided in the dorm suite adjacent to hers. Michelle has stayed in touch with both of them over the past 14 years.

I don't think Erica was trying to contrast her experiences against Alyssa's. I think it's likely that Erica just read my post and then followed up with a comment without reading the others.

Either way, as an engineer I always tend to think in terms of tradeoffs. Rarely can we have the ideal. This is a mindset I saw in some parents' comments that evening: "well, which method of computation is the best?" The other tendency is to look for a "one size fits all" universal method. Sure, it's not optimal or efficient, but it's always applicable.

My comments earlier were trying to say that by exposing kids to a variety of computation algorithms, they might be able to find the method or methods that fit them best for the problem at hand. On the other hand, I think there are some kids who, like those parents, just want one way. With "just one way" (tm) you can focus on being proficient at it

My biggest concern, though, is to be proficient at math (not just arithmetic) you need a certain _intuition_ about numbers and how arithmetic applies to real life. Otherwise algebra, calculus, and differential equation becomes a hodge podge of abstract ideas with no relevance.

I was rather impressed when Claire did the following for me:

15 / 3
150 / 2
52 / 4

In each case she came up with the right answer and all were different approaches. Not once did she just write them down and compute them in the classic style.

Posted by: Scott at September 25, 2003 01:31 PM