mathmom's blog

Scott Simon is my all time favorite radio host, and his commentaries on Saturday Weekend Editions are my favorite minutes of radio all week (when I get to hear them). I especially enjoyed this commentary about his wife's job as a stay at home mom, and how he contributes---I felt as though he'd been watching my life. My favorite line: "She has four minutes a day to herself and eats only Cheerios that fall on the floor." I also like the recognition that there is no vacation from being a parent. Hope you like it!

This is (apparently) the Pythagorean theorem sung in Swedish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuqF45MLYFQ It makes me wish I knew some Swedish. It seems to involve the proof, not just the theorem (which would make for a shorter song). I can't find out anything else about it. I can't quite read the letters on the diagram they're using, which might make more sense. And now back to your regularly scheduled kid stories.

The problem with having so many blog posts and a not very good labeling system is that I can't tell if I've posted about this before. However, it is worth talking about again, as I apply ideas and think about what does and doesn't work... A while ago I found the best article I've read about how to praise kids: The Power and Peril of Praising your Kids from New York Magazine. The executive summary is that kids praised in the wrong way will have less confidence, take fewer risks and perform worse than kids praised in more effective ways. You should all go read the article right now, even if it means you won't have time to finish reading my blog---it's a great article. One great line: “Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control,” she explains. “They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child’s control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure." ...

I just wanted to recommend a few new blogs. I'm trying to make them non-political, but some politics seems to be slipping in. http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ by Lenore Skenazy . She manages to separate sensible precautions from overboard hyper-parenting, and she's really funny at the same time. Also check out the essays she's published . My favorite is the one about skills Sarah Palin could have learned in the PTA. Cake Wrecks This blog has made me laugh so much I've had to sit down. It's about professional cakes that go terribly wrong. My favorites are the cakes that put the instructions for the decorations on the cake. Sand in the Gears by Tony Woodlief . He is a conservative, but his viewpoint is not the typical one---he often points out follies of knee-jerk (emphasis on the jerk) conservatism. He is also raising 4 boys, and his post about going out to eat with them could have been copied almost verbatim from our conversations. Finally, one I just ...

I was just reading a blog about a mother, recovering from surgery, who felt bad because she didn't have green milk and lucky charms for breakfast on St. Patrick's day this year. Some of the commenters said they try to make their lives revolve around their children, but they can't for too long... I have a hard time relating to this. I have always felt that the correct analogy for my children is not that I revolve around them like a planet around a sun, but that they are satellites revolving around me. Let me point out first of all that there are 3 of them, and I physically can't revolve around all 3 of them at the same time (unless by a miracle they all want me to do the same thing, which almost never happens...) They really do seem like my satellites. Luke is like something in low earth orbit, very nearby, practically crowding into my atmosphere. Amanda is further out (perhaps geosynchronous orbit) but well within view. As Eleanor gets older, she's going in to her ...

In her latest blog entry (Letters from a broad...: Est- ce que it pokes?) C.L. Hanson talks about her son's bringing of French grammar and phrases into English. One of her comments raises the question of how the language you speak influences the way you think. I've been wondering about this and the ease/difficulty of saying no and yes in various languages and whether this might influence the famous negativity of toddlers. For example, one of a baby's first words (at least English speaking babies) is " Da ," yes in Russian. Does this mean that when a baby babbles in Russian they are saying "yes yes yes yes..."? Would this have an effect on power struggles, or the way a parent interacts with a baby? Compared to Luke who is already learning " nnnnnnn " when he doesn't like something, a baby babbling "yes" would seem to put a positive spin on the whole situation. Luke is also learning to shake his head "no!" at things---it...

I got to talk to Jack Pearson today! For those of you have never heard of him, he's Mr. Song- Strummin ' Story-man, a folk singer who visits schools to sing and tell stories (his website is here ). I had called the phone number on his website to order some CDs for presents. Can you imagine how tickled I was to hear a very familiar voice on the other end of the line saying "Hello, this is Jack." I was very surprised, to say the least. We have had his CDs in our car for months. I think I've probably heard them more than he has! The thing I like best about them is that they do not get old. There are many types of songs, from new compositions to folk songs, stories and instrumentals. The favorite is probably " Eekebee ", a retelling of the fable of the lion and the mouse. As the lion says, "Even a mouse can do great things, if he is brave." My favorite is probably the story "Freedom Bird" from a Thai folk tale. I got to tell h...

A friend recently pointed me to the web site FreeRice The idea is that you play a vocabulary game, and for every word you guess correctly, the advertisers will donate 20 grains of rice to the world food program run by the UN. Since there are about 7200 grains of rice in a cup (found through google , so it must be true) and since this game is tremendously addicting (I easily get to my personal limit, 2000 grains of rice a day) it seems like a good deal all around. The best part is that anyone can play at her own level. I have been learning new words: nidus means nest and nabob means important official, for example. Then tonight I introduced Eleanor to the game. She gets excited when she gets words right, like snake means serpent ("I learned that from Narnia!") She doesn't always know what she is guessing, but I think she's learning new words, or at least that it is fun to know words. She also has learned some about what kids in other countries have to eat every...

OK, everyone, follow this link! It made me laugh very hard. Runnergirl, you especially need to read this =) Pokemon cards on ebay (read the description) My kids must be very talented, since they make me feel like this even though there are only 3 of them... Today Luke and I went to the grocery store. He didn't ask for a single thing, or put anything into the cart, or run away down an aisle, or scream because I was getting the wrong brand of macaroni and cheese... It was quite peaceful. Amanda was at school for her second to last "short schedule" day---starting on Friday she goes for the full 3 hours. We'll see how that goes, probably well. For posterity: The blog the ebay writer talks about is http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ I feel like I must know her, or she knows me, especially when she talks about her husband going to the grocery store for 2 items and forgetting one. Michael has many wonderful talents, but remembering a list of groceries is not one of the...