Math in the Car
Lately Ben does math in the car. He'll ask, "What's 83 times 12?" And Tony or I will say, "Can you figure it out?" And he does. His thinking through 2/3 + 1/4 occupied a good 15 minutes of a long drive recently, and that's okay because he's seven. I don't believe his first grade teacher has even taught the kids fractions yet, let alone how to add them.
So now of course Eli wants in on the fun. The other day on the drive to school he asked, "What's 3 divided by 2?" Before I could respond, Ben said, "Eli, do you know what 'divided by' means?"
"No."
"Well," said Ben, "It's a kind of math process; do you know what 'math' is?"
"No."
"Okay, well, math is numbers. 3 divided by 2 means, how many two's fit inside three, and that's one and a half. "
Eli was perfectly satisfied with that explanation, and for now I am, too. Maybe Ben can teach Eli long division, also...
So now of course Eli wants in on the fun. The other day on the drive to school he asked, "What's 3 divided by 2?" Before I could respond, Ben said, "Eli, do you know what 'divided by' means?"
"No."
"Well," said Ben, "It's a kind of math process; do you know what 'math' is?"
"No."
"Okay, well, math is numbers. 3 divided by 2 means, how many two's fit inside three, and that's one and a half. "
Eli was perfectly satisfied with that explanation, and for now I am, too. Maybe Ben can teach Eli long division, also...
Labels: driving, family life, math
5 Comments:
that is just excellent!
Wow, that's wonderful.
Very neat-- both Ben's budding interest and his eagerness to explain it to his brother. Maybe he can explain long division to me-- I'm taking a Teaching Math course for my Ed degree and I'm realizing that it's been a looong time since I've done all of this stuff!
One interesting thing I'm learning (the class is based on a Constructivist approach) is that in fact there are several different, mathematically valid ways of realizing the basic operations-- some ways of adding and subtracting do away with the need for carrying and borrowing, for example-- and that it is desireable to let kids discover their own ways of doing things when presented with a problem before teaching them the "right" way to do it. I doubt that approach will be put into practice in the classroom, but maybe for an interested child...
Three cheers, both for Ben and for Eli!
Love,
Mom/Grandma
Interesting...some SF classrooms are switching to a math teaching method called Everyday Math, which is somewhat controversial. The idea is to give kids a number of different strategies for solving a math problem, but some people feel this method makes some math processes more complicated than they need to be. Seems like Ben enjoys thinking about math and enjoying the beauty of it.
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