James and I just finished reading Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Di Camillo. I really love this book. The author manages — with a very light hand — to offer a story that is realistic and profound, with a lot to say about human experience, yet gentle, fun, and — at times — fanciful.
I don’t think James, who is 9 and more into straightforward action and magic in books, got all the subtleties in the novel. But he still seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. I’ve always thought that was one of the hallmarks of a really terrific book. It meets the reader right where he is and is enjoyed on many different levels.
In part of the story, Franny Block, the librarian, tells about her great-grandfather, Littmus W. Block, who fought for the Confederacy when he was only 14. It led us on a rabbit trail.
We read Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco.
I am a huge fan of Polacco’s picture books. I think she is a brilliant writer and artist. She is another author who can be profound with a very light touch. Most of her books are simple enough to be enjoyed by my 4-year-old, yet I still love them. Pink and Say is probably her most mature and disturbing book. It is based on a true story, handed down from the author’s great-grandfather who fought for the Union. Polacco asks us to remember the character of “Pink” who has no descendants to remember him because he was killed before he could father children. This book was a nice follow up to When Lightning Comes in a Jar, which I read to both James and Trishy last week. It explores the importance of keeping memories of ancestors alive through traditions and family stories. (Both of these books almost made me cry.)
James is an absolute novice when it comes to U.S. History. I am not a believer in early academics, so — at 9 — he is pretty much an academic virgin is several areas. 
We talked a bit about the Civil War, without going in too much depth.
For a long time, I have believed it is important, right from the beginning, to touch on the complexities of history. I grew up with the impression that the Civil War was fought “to free the slaves” and Abraham Lincoln was a one-dimensional abolitionist hero. I have lived in the South all my life, surrounded by Confederate flags and complex feelings and ideas about our Confederate history, but I never really paid attention — and these views were certainly not included in textbooks.
There is something tempting about that perspective. Since no one can debate how evil slavery is, it gives a sense of moral “rightness” that glosses over the horrors of war. It also ignores most of the true motives for war. I believe that feeding kids an over-simplified view of history is a habit that becomes hard to break. Not only does it allow people to grow up with a one-dimensional understanding of history, but it creates citizens who are easy prey for the lulling, over-simplified rhetoric strewn by politicians and talking heads in the media.
Jove has discussed this in more detail here and in other posts.
I think that we can keep our explanations of history simple, if we’re not ready to go into more depth yet (as with my novice son) without handing down distorted facts or leaving out the complexity of these issues altogether. I felt that Pink and Say was in that spirit, offering a simple story without ignoring the brutal realities of war. For that reason, I think it’s a terrific book. And for the same reason, I think it’s one parents should preview before sharing with young kids.
In the same spirit, I just told James something like this — The Civil War was fought for a complicated mix of reasons including states’ rights, slavery, and other things. He doesn’t understand what all that means yet, but he knows it was complicated. I told him there were a number of people in the North - many of them Quakers like Grandma Karen, who sincerely opposed slavery and wanted the slaves to be free. (There was also a viable abolitionist movement in the South.) They were an important force for the good, and also influenced the decision to go to war. For the most part, though, the North didn’t support slavery because they didn’t need slaves as much. While the South had more farms, they had more factories. And most of the Southerners (and nearly all those who were put on the front lines) didn’t own slaves and never would; they weren’t rich enough. They may not have cared about the issue of slavery. From their perspective, they were protecting their homeland from invading forces.
On the other hand, the war did lead to emancipation. We will never know whether — had things been different and the U.S. not fought this horrible war — that could have been achieved peacefully, as it was in England.
In Because of Winn Dixie and Pink and Say, we were presented with the brutal fact that children were sent to fight. Sometimes, they were put in battle without being given weapons with which to defend themselves. Relatively simple, but certainly not sugar coated.
To learn more about slavery and the Underground Railroad, James and I read two picture books, also based on true stories: Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and Night Running by Elisa Carbone.
These were good books, and they were beautifully illustrated. They touched on a few of the raw realities of slavery, such as children being sold away from their families, without getting very complex or graphic.
I definitely recommend all these picture books, and I understand there are other really good ones out there on the same topic. That sounds like fodder for a separate blog post.
August 17th, 2008
Serendipitously, I was headed here to post a few notes on our first efforts to get our feet wet with probability when I saw that Jove had a great post up about the importance of learning probability. Check it out!
James did a few “games.” I’m borrowing my ideas from an old edition of About Teaching Mathematics by Marilyn Burns.
We played with two multicolored spinners. One had four colors, divided equally into quarters. As he spun the spinner again and again, we recorded the results with a makeshift pictogram. (When he spun yellow, we put a yellow counter in the yellow column, and so forth)
Then we did the same thing with a spinner that was half yellow.
In both cases I asked him:
- Who do you predict will “win?”
- What do you predict this chart will look like when we’re done?
- What are the odds of spinning yellow?
We also played “Pig.” I have no idea where this game got its name. (Sarah has started playing this game too) This is how it worked:
In turn, each of us has the opportunity to roll four dice. On his turn, a player may roll as many dice as he wants as many times as he wants, accumulating points as he goes. (The 1st player to 100 points wins) For example, if I rolled a 4, a 6, & 2 3s, I get 16 points, and I have the opportunity to roll for more points. The catch is this — any time you roll a “1″ on any of the dice your turn ends and you lose ALL the points earned in that round. If you roll TWO ones you lose all the points won so far in the game. So every time you roll again, you have to ask yourself “Do I Feel Lucky?” 
One purpose of the game was to review and practice math facts through sums of 24. Even though I am big on teaching math conceptually (the way I never learned it), I do think memorizing those basic facts is important — and easy to do through games.
It is also a probability game. Marilyn Burns suggested that after playing “Pig” a few times, the student write a strategy for winning.
I have a question for those of you who are more mathematically savvy and strategic minded that I (which includes just about everyone in the known world). How would you articulate a strategy for this game and why?
James’s strategy seemed to be to play conservatively. He’d roll all four dice then stop. He didn’t articulate a reason, but it worked pretty well. I tended to roll multiple times, so I got more “1″s — scoring zeroes for those rounds. On a good round, I’d amass more points, but I also got more zeroes. Our “strategies” balanced each other out, we were running neck and neck throughout the game.
So, readers … any thoughts on strategy here?
Elementary Level Books on Probability that Look Interesting from Living Math’s Reading Lists.
also:
- Greed — a game similar to “Pig.” O.K., I just figured out where the name “Pig” comes from.
More About Addition: I noticed when we were playing “Pig” that James still counts by adding on (for example — 6+3 —> 6,7,8 … 9!) O.K. … so he doesn’t know his math facts yet. More importantly, I don’t think he’s “seeing” how the sums fit together. I don’t really know how to explain that, but I am going to revisit the Greg Tang books. He teaches this better than anyone I’ve seen. Maybe I’ll post on that later.
August 17th, 2008
Sarah plays “On the Money” at the grocery store. She keeps track of the cost of each item we select in the grocery. Then she estimates the total grocery bill, using rounding, addition, and multiplication. She wins a little money of her estimate is very close.
Here, her estimate was only off by $2 on a $62.50 grocery bill:
Each of the kids has an “account” with me, in which allowances are kept. They can add or withdraw money from their accounts when they need too. Today, they computed their balances.
Sarah did it pretty easily. James needed help. He has a strong visual-spatial learning style and good number sense. But he has difficulty with anything requiring a step-by-step process. If he can’t just look at the problem and “get” it, he becomes lost and frustrated.
One thing he will NOT do is traditional column by column, right-to-left addition and subtraction with regrouping. (Egads — my 4th grade teacher would be perfectly appalled! :-D) During the past few years, I’ve encouraged and helped him in developing his own methods for solving these kinds of problems, and he practices often through tracking “life points” in trading card games. He tends to go from left to right. For example, 45+58 —> 40+50=90 and 5+8=13 —–> 90+13=103 He’ll do it mentally. No columns and no “carrying.” With this problem: 234-167, I’d definitely go for the traditional columns and borrowing approach. (My 4th grade teacher would be proud). James would probably approach it this way: 234-167 —> 200-100=100 —> 30-60= -30 —> 4-7= -3 —>100-30-3=67
(I have noticed in some elementary textbooks, after the teach the borrow-and-carry drill, they teach “mental math” as a separate skill. James’s approach makes more sense to me. Starting with “mental math,” rather than rote processes, seems to build comprehension, along with the understanding that there are multiple ways to approach a problem.
Anyhoo — with the money thing, he needed to add up 3 or 4 expenses, where he’d borrowed money for Yu-Gi-Oh cards. To make it fit his style, I encouraged him to do it like this. Take the dollars first, then the cents. The decimal is kind of a dividing line. For example — $34.78 + $40.70 —> $34 + $40 = $74 —-> 78 cents + 70 cents = $1.48 —> $74.00 + $1.48 = $75.48. This worked pretty well, but it doesn’t help when tallying a list of figures. So we had to break the list into steps, which gets into those left brain tasks that make him go all bibbldy. Oh well. We’ll keep practicing. Or I’ll just go ahead and teach him to use a calculator.
Of course there’s also Monopoly. Today we played Dogopoly.
This game reviews addition facts through sums of 12 every time you roll the dice. It also practices counting money and making change, which includes addition and subtraction of 3-digit numbers.
Let’s not forget the long-time centerpiece of James’s math curriculum. TRADING CARD GAMES!
Mythmatical Battles:
And, of course, YuGiOh!
I find the rules and strategies required to play YuGiOh! insufferably complicated. I could just as easily learn ancient Hebrew or learn how to construct a fighter jet as master this game. Yet 6-year-old boys seem to master it with ease.
Basically a player compares his attack/defense points to another player’s attack/defense points and the highest number wins. Sometimes a player has the difference between the two scores subtracted from his “Life Points.” So the game includes comparing numbers (100s, 1000s, and higher) and multi-digit subtraction, as well as strategic thinking.
In Mythmatical Battles, players compare attack/defense points with smaller numbers. Each attack or defense score is expressed as a multiplication equation (for example, Zeus’s attack score is 9×5), so it “drills” multiplication facts. You can combine your cards’ scores, in some cases, so you need addition (with numbers of up to 2 digits). We play with “Life Points” (our own variation). If the other player attacks and you have no one on the field, the attack score of the attacking card is deducted from your “Life Points.” For example, if I have 500 life points with no one on the field, and Zeus attacks 500-45=455. So it requires that James do constant subtraction with regrouping.
August 17th, 2008
Trishy grew sunflowers from seeds.
Photo by James Ward
We talked about what seeds need to grow: soil, water and sunlight. We looked at the seeds growing in the heart of the flower and talked about how the birds were enjoying eating them. The birds will drop a few seeds on the ground and — with soil, water, and sunlight — they will become new plants.
We read this picture book, which explores the same ideas in rhyme:
We also read Sunflower House. It’s a lovely picture book. It explores a sunflower’s life cycle too, and it shows beautiful pictures of a seed germinating.
August 17th, 2008
We had a picnic and the kids explored the creek for a while. It was teeming with frog eggs and tadpoles.
Then we went to the lake
August 17th, 2008
Trishy and Granddad
Smithsonian Butterfly Garden
A view through the fountain
In the NGA sculpture garden
Sarah spent a lot of time in the National Gallery of Art and visited the National Museum of Natural History. We also explored the National Gallery’s sculpture garden.
James and Trishy spent a lot of time in the National Museum of Natural History, particularly the geology exhibits. We also explored the National Gallery’s sculpture garden.
August 17th, 2008
Here are some pictures of the kids at a get together at Riven Rock today. They played in the creek and looked at tadpoles and fish. Sarah also found a spot where a multitude of Swallowtail butterflies was gathered. “It must have been mating time.”
James and Aengus, one of his very best buds, functioning on about 5 hours of sleep after a “sleep” over
Trishy
Sarah kicking butt and taking names in a water fight with the younger kids. She considered at least one mom to be fair game, too.
August 17th, 2008
Next Posts