Ah, summer.
The other day my 8-year-old rode down the middle of the street on his bicycle wearing all black and spouting his own version of vampire lore. Did you know wearing black is lucky for a vampire?
It’s a good thing I’m past caring what the neighbors think.
Our first week of summer has been stressful. I have great plans for getting my kids on a schedule and improving some bad eating habits that have slipped in. Relax, none of those habits have anything to do with blood! But first I need to finish a rewrite. I’d hoped to have it done before school got out, but with one thing or another…
So this blog will be short and sweet. Well, sweet if you think vampire-obsessed 8-year-old’s are sweet. Since I'm also considered a moving violation when I’m plotting and walking at the same time, I find Chunky’s world-building charming. I’m sure some parents would be concerned, but having lived through his leprechaun stage and countless “I’m a puppy dog” scenarios, I know to let the “story” play out.
Speaking of stories, just today I saw that there’s a graphic novel version of Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow. I loved reading it in college so I think I might have to pick it up.
I just started Divergent and it promises to be good. On my summer reading list with the boys are The Invention of Hugo Cabret and The Lightning Thief.
I’d love to hear what you’re reading this summer. What’s on your TBR pile? If you have kids, what are they reading?
Oh, and in case you need something to look forward to, check out the trailer for Les Miserables. It gave me goosebumps!
Showing posts with label creative child. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creative child. Show all posts
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Help! I Have a Creative Child.
The other night I was sitting between my two boys, helping them with their math homework.
Monkey, my third grader is doing fractions. I vaguely remember fractions as going something like this.
Problem:
If Evangeline eats 2/3 of a pie, how much pie will be left for Evangeline to share with her friends?
Answer:
Evangeline is a pig.
Needless to say, I wasn’t much help to my son. For one thing, it seems they do math differently nowadays, and even though I could tell he was working with fractions, the presentation looked like alien bathroom art.
But I tried. He kept asking me if his answers were right, and I kept trying to avoid admitting I didn’t know.
Meanwhile, my first grader had a sheet of simple addition problems.
Chunky: Mommy, what’s nine plus nine?
Me: You figure it out.
Chunky: But I can’t.
Me: Then go get those jelly beans. Count out nine, then count out nine more. Then add them together.
While Chunky fetched the jelly beans, I turned back to Monkey’s Martian graffiti. After an irrelevant and somewhat desperate lecture against defacing property, I checked back with Chunky to see if he had made two groups of nine jelly beans.
Chunky: Look, Mom, I made an exclamation mark out of jelly beans.
Me: That’s great. Now count out two groups of nine.
Chunky: No! That’ll mess up my design.
Me: Oooookay.
Monkey claimed my attention again. I eventually had to send him to his dad for confirmation that his answers were, indeed, correct.
When I looked at Chunky’s paper again, he’d come up with an interesting way to show his work.
Here was the problem.
Clearly he was supposed to draw groups of dots or write out a word problem, but Chunky chose, instead, to illustrate his creative process.
It really is a picture of how he solved the problem--by sitting at the table, rubbing his antenna together, and eventually coming up with the answer. The fact that it in no way shows his mathematical method is arguably irrelevant.
No, he doesn’t have a future as a mathematician. I’m thinking we have an LAS major on our hands. English? Fine Art? Communications? Philosophy? Cringe. Let’s hope, like his mother, he marries well.
Monkey, my third grader is doing fractions. I vaguely remember fractions as going something like this.
Problem:
If Evangeline eats 2/3 of a pie, how much pie will be left for Evangeline to share with her friends?
Answer:
Evangeline is a pig.
Needless to say, I wasn’t much help to my son. For one thing, it seems they do math differently nowadays, and even though I could tell he was working with fractions, the presentation looked like alien bathroom art.
But I tried. He kept asking me if his answers were right, and I kept trying to avoid admitting I didn’t know.
Meanwhile, my first grader had a sheet of simple addition problems.
Chunky: Mommy, what’s nine plus nine?
Me: You figure it out.
Chunky: But I can’t.
Me: Then go get those jelly beans. Count out nine, then count out nine more. Then add them together.
While Chunky fetched the jelly beans, I turned back to Monkey’s Martian graffiti. After an irrelevant and somewhat desperate lecture against defacing property, I checked back with Chunky to see if he had made two groups of nine jelly beans.
Chunky: Look, Mom, I made an exclamation mark out of jelly beans.
Me: That’s great. Now count out two groups of nine.
Chunky: No! That’ll mess up my design.
Me: Oooookay.
Monkey claimed my attention again. I eventually had to send him to his dad for confirmation that his answers were, indeed, correct.
When I looked at Chunky’s paper again, he’d come up with an interesting way to show his work.
Here was the problem.
Clearly he was supposed to draw groups of dots or write out a word problem, but Chunky chose, instead, to illustrate his creative process.
It really is a picture of how he solved the problem--by sitting at the table, rubbing his antenna together, and eventually coming up with the answer. The fact that it in no way shows his mathematical method is arguably irrelevant.
No, he doesn’t have a future as a mathematician. I’m thinking we have an LAS major on our hands. English? Fine Art? Communications? Philosophy? Cringe. Let’s hope, like his mother, he marries well.
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