mathmom's blog

Recently I helped Luke's classmates make geodesic domes out of newspaper, using this website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/educator/act_geodesic_ho.html It was very satisfactory: the kids learned about the importance of measuring accurately, keeping track of progress, and how something that looks unimpressive to begin with can be actually amazing at the end.  I was even amazed ("It works!  Math works!" I exclaimed as the kids put the roofs on) and I've done it before. To give the kids something to look at, we made a sturdier but smaller dome out of straws. I used this website, which has a mix of complete, accurate directions and pictures and vague, inaccurate directions, as well as nice pictures of a chicken run geodesic dome: http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/mathematics/dome/dome.html One important note: you actually need the following numbers of straws: 90 long (7 3/4") straws, for 6 pointed stars 50 short (6 1/2") straws, for the 5 poi...

At some point in my life, I am going to open a restaurant.  Its name will be, "Caramelized."  All the food will come out 10-20 minutes after you expect it, and will have a blackened crust, or blackened flakes (probably the onions) floating in it.  Every once in a while there will be a fire alarm and everyone will have to leave while someone opens all the doors and lets the smoke out of the kitchen.  The motto will be, "It's not burnt, it's caramelized. " Not that I have any experience with this type of cooking at all.  Sigh.

Most days we go on our merry way without being aware that we are hurtling through space at millions of miles an hour.  The other day I saw something that made me take notice. Eleanor and I were driving to school, and as we drove up the hill out of our neighborhood we saw a beautiful picture of the moon and Venus framed by the trees on either side of the street. It was beautiful, and Eleanor took a picture with her phone. A month later, we were driving at the same time, and saw the same arrangement of the moon and Venus, but it was over to the right, no longer framed perfectly by the trees.  We had moved, the moon, had moved, Venus had moved... It looks like we are on solid ground, but the earth is not actually as static as we assume.  And I'm sad because that picture won't come around again until next year... when my life will have moved to some different place as well.

The other night I was exhausted and feeling ill, so after getting Luke to bed (early, because he was sick as well) I told Amanda, "You need to put yourself to bed.  Get to bed at a reasonable hour." Eleanor piped up, "Oh, you get 'reasonable hour' privileges!"  It struck me that the choice of when to go to bed one of the stepping stones on the road to adulthood.  Giving someone that privilege is not an assumption that they will always make the right choice (ask me whether, as a supposedly responsible adult, I always go to bed at a reasonable hour!). On the other hand, it does assume that the person can judge what the reasonable hour is, take steps to get to bed at that time, and take responsibility for their mood when they make a mistake.  The final step in responsible adulting involves evaluating whether what you did worked well, and adjusting your actions so that they are more constructive in the future. Unfortunately for Amanda, I then looked at the c...

Luke helped decorate the Christmas tree today---he's home sick, but you don't always feel like lying on the couch if you are sick.  He decided that the glass ornaments should be put on the lower branches, because, "If the tree falls, they are less likely to break."  It wasn't too long ago that putting the glass ornaments on the lower branches made it more likely that they would break. He also helped check every light on a string to find the ones that were burnt out so that the string would light again.  In the course of going through the lights we found some that made the string blink.  He wondered how it worked---after all, the bitty bulb wasn't big enough to have a computer controller in it.  When he looked inside at the bulb he saw a thick strip near the filament.  "A bi-metalic strip! That's brilliant!"  He was impressed by the genius of a bi-metalic strip for the next few hours.  I wonder if that's how they really work...

I asked Amanda if she wanted to bring her violin on this year's vacation to see grandparents.  It can be fun to make music with cousins and it is good to keep up on practicing while traveling so you don't lose your progress. It also gives structure to the days which can sometimes be long and boring. However, Amanda said that she had written a note to herself telling her not to bring her violin along.  I understand that, I make imaginary notes to myself all the time.  But then she got out her notebook and showed me a page on which she had written, "Note to future Amanda: Do not bring your violin on a vacation."  Not an imaginary note---there it was, in black and white.  So we didn't bring the violin this time.  I think future Amanda appreciated the foresight. Poor Luke plays piano.  On the one hand, he absolutely cannot bring his instrument along with.  On the other hand, many places have pianos and then he can practice.  We are still work...

One of the great things about this age is that I can show all the movies and TV shows I loved as a child to my kids.  The peril is that sometimes they really do not hold up. I watched MacGyver with the kids.  They really enjoy his can-do attitude he has and the way he turns chewing gum wrappers into explosives (whether or not the things he builds would be possible in real life).  They see why Dad has MacGyver as his nickname.  On the other hand, women really have one purpose in this series: to be rescued by McGyver.  Even the extremely smart scientists are there to be rescued.  I had found myself skeptical about whether women really had bad parts in TV shows from my past: I was wrong.  It is that bad.  Maybe in the later episodes their roles improve, but I doubt it.  It really makes me appreciate modern writing: it's so much more exciting when everyone gets to help. We watched The Goonies .  I remembered it as being a fun adventure ...

The other day we were looking at the school dress code.  After noticing how silly it was, she noted, "Well, it doesn't seem to forbid Starfleet uniforms." Indeed.  (Well, it might forbid some of the ones from The Original Series...)

Today Amanda was reading at the restaurant where we ate lunch.  I told her it was time to go and she looked around for a bookmark.  She picked up the ketchup packet and placed it delicately between the pages of her book... Immediately I was besieged by visions of books with ketchup stains all over the pages, goopy ketchup all over Amanda's face and hands, napkins failing to contain all the mess... "No no no no no!" I said, and then (and only then) Amanda saw what the problem was.  I always feel like Cassandra standing at the gates of Troy before the Trojan War, foretelling doom and gloom.  I am constantly warning children that if they don't eat they will be hungry during errands, if they don't drink they will get migraines, if they don't put away their shoes they will not be able to find them later, if they carry that down the stairs that way they will fall, and so on.   It is interesting, because biologically speaking their fore brains are not as well d...

I have been cleaning up my house in preparation for Christmas.  Don't laugh: it really needs some work, I go pretty slow, and I'm not opposed to cleaning something again if necessary.  For example, the pantry and fridge already need a bit of work even though I cleaned them in January. I cleaned out my dresser in May and found lots and lots of coins.  I gave them to Amanda and Luke to sort through while I decided what to do with them.  They separated out all the quarters, foreign coins, and really cool coins from the ordinary pennies, nickels and dimes.  But what to do with the rest? My sister suggested Coinstar, which they have at our local grocery store.  It used to be that Coinstar would take out 7 cents for every dollar you put in, which I have a problem with.  It's not a logical problem: I'd probably be paying them 21 cents to take my coins out of my house and give me something valuable, which is actually a pretty good deal.  On the other ...

Amanda and Luke just got back from a church camp.  I asked them when "lights out" was. Luke said that official lights out was at 9 but they stayed up later because their counselor read them stories.  "What kind of stories?"  "Dinosaur stories."  Um, ok?  "They were good dinosaur stories." "See," said Amanda, "that's the difference between the boys cabins and the girls cabins.  We read devotions." Luke replied, "Oh, ours were devotions too!" My mind cannot grasp the idea of devotional dinosaur stories for 10 year old boys, and probably that's ok.

One of the parts of our summer plan is that each child does 30-40 minutes worth of a chore every day.  When you have 12+ hours of freedom every day, spending less than an hour on a task is not too daunting.  Also, I'm required to work with them so they see me doing work too and it's less lonely. The great thing is all the tasks that get done.  With 3 people working, Luke's room got cleaned pretty quickly.  We sorted through the old toys and found some for a (theoretical) garage sale. We moved a lot of mulch. Luke invented a long stick to help him dust the baseboards and behind the couches (dusting is much more fun when you are inventing too!).  I'm a bit worried actually that we will run out of things to do...  I'm sure I can ask friends and relatives for ideas. One of my favorite "chores" was the trash bag I asked Amanda to make for the car.  She used a gallon ziploc for the liner, and strong magnet for the strap so that we can take it out and put...

The other day we went to viola/violin lessons.  Since Luke was out of school he got to come with us.  Eleanor and Amanda each have a 45 minute lesson, I have a half-hour lesson, so that means Luke gets to wait for 2 hours while his sisters have lessons.  Ah, the joy of being the 3rd child. In addition, after the first lesson of each month, we get a "treat" at the local coffee shop.  They sell bubble teas, as well as lots of other bakery treats.  Luke had had a treat after his piano lesson the week before, so just the girls needed a treat that week. As you might guess, Luke asked for a treat while his sisters were getting a treat.  I pointed out that he had already had a treat and that it wouldn't be fair for him to have another, but I didn't say it was out of the question.  In my mind, I was thinking that he had behaved very nicely during the lesson and he was pretty hungry since it was close to lunch.  I was almost ready to say that he could ...

We have almost survived one week of summer vacation. The great problem of summer vacation is the draw of various devices/computers/videos/TV/etc.  Given the chance I think my kids would spend 100% of their time playing video games.  So this summer we have a rule that there are no screens between 9 and 4.  The ban includes playing games, watching videos, and reading random websites. The ban does not include writing or researching, so I am legal right now.  Along with this is a rule that you need to practice, do one chore, and do 3 other useful things each day.  "Useful things" are very broadly defined and include playing games with your sibling, cooking (one sweet per week), making a craft,  bike riding, going to the pool, reading...  They do not include bothering your mom, pestering your siblings, or complaining.  If there is too much non-useful stuff going on, I will then assign useful tasks like dusting or cleaning bathrooms. We will see h...

I hate weeding.  I hate most that no matter how much you pull the weeds they always come back, and if you relax your vigilance for even one week they are suddenly out of control.  My favorite strategy for weeds is to put down a layer of mulch so you can't see them anymore.  I know, it doesn't work forever, but at least it solves to problem for a while. So last week we got a truckload of mulch.  In past years we have left the mulch to sit for a few weeks while we gathered up the time to spread it.  This year I resolved to spread it immediately---unfortunately, we had some painting left over from last week to do.  I couldn't do the painting (it required being tall and being up on a ladder) so we decided Michael would paint with Eleanor and I spread mulch with Amanda and Luke. Yay. Fortunately for me, Amanda and Luke are older now and more responsible.  What's more, they go to crossfit and are strong.  Amanda spread (she was excellent at the deta...