Excellence in Writing

I have heard great things about the Institute for Excellence in Writing, and I finally got around to visiting their website and checking out their stuff. I am already feeling inspired by the *free* download of Andrew Puweda's lecture "Reaching the Reluctant Writer". It's about an hour long, but really worth it! I already have in mind a great writing exercise to try with Maymuna next week. He provides an entire outline of how to get your kid taking notes, transferring information, re-writing a story in his/her own words, and encouraging public speaking skills, increasing vocabulary and active listening as well. He also makes a great argument for abolishing PENCILS in your child's school work... (to listen to that, skip to the last twenty-four minutes or so of the lecture linked above).

An unlikely subject on this blog: MATH

So, The Mathematician's Lament is officially blowing my mind! However I'm not sure what to do with the *pieces* of my mind now. How to assimilate this new information into our teaching at home? It's very... philosophical so far. If I were mathematically inclined perhaps I could better see how to implement some of these concepts. I am not done the book yet, but I'm hoping he offers some concrete advice near the end. I hoped against hope that there would be a list of suggested curriculum at the back of the book, but alas, there is none. For now, we are trying to spend as much time on mathematical *concepts* that are more playful (like length, weight, time, value) as we are on drills and facts.

Here is a great quote from Paul Lockhart:

Mathematics is the music of reason. To do mathematics is to engage in an act of discovery and conjecture, intuition and inspiration; to be in a state of confusion - not because it makes no sense to you, but because you gave it sense and you still don't understand what your creation is up to; to have a breakthrough idea; to be frustrated as an artist; to be awed and overwhelmed by an almost painful beauty; to be alive, damn it.

This guy freakin' LOVES math, you guys. It's inspiring...

Rum River Art Center

This is where the girls took acrylic painting classes this fall. Larry, who runs the center and teaches the classes, is GREAT with kids and we are happy that he started a blog so we can do some of these projects at home! Check it out HERE!

Thanks Larry!

5 best toys of all time

Just read this fun article over at the Geek Dad blog on Wired.com

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/the-5-best-toys-of-all-time/all/1