Let’s Play Math!

Now there is an ancient Greek letter,
And I think no other is better.
It isn’t too tall,
It might look very small,
But its digits, they go on forever.

— Scott
at Mrs. Mitchell’s Virtual School

Time to celebrate

Are your students doing anything special for Day? After two months with no significant break, we are going stir crazy. We need a day off — and what better way could we spend it than to play math all afternoon?

If you need ideas, here are some great pages:

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I found this worksheet on the KISS Grammar website, and I loved the quotations so much I just had to share them:

In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.

— English proverb

One cat just leads to another.

— Ernest Hemingway

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…with Princess Kitten’s baby sitting on my lap, sucking her thumb paw. Of course, it is difficult to get any typing done, and the laundry that is beeping at me from the other room will just have to wait its turn. Peace is a purring kitten.

• Best kitten toy ever
• Cat quotations
• Happy birthday, Princess Kitten!
• I couldn’t resist…
• Why am I always the straight man?

Take one ring from a milk jug, one plastic straw, and two leftover ribbons. Add one 8- to 12-week-old kitten.

Mix together on a hard-surface floor, and enjoy!

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Related Posts: family news and tidbits

Registrations have been rolling in for our homeschool co-op, and the most popular classes are full already. Math doesn’t seem to be a “most popular” class. I can’t imagine why! Still, many of my students from last year are coming back for another go, and I am getting spill-over from the science class waiting list.

Anyway, I have started planning in earnest for our fall session. As usual, I look to those wiser than myself for inspiration…

Many teachers are concerned about the amount of material they must cover in a course. One cynic suggested a formula: since, he said, students on the average remember only about 40% of what you tell them, the thing to do is to cram into each course 250% of what you hope will stick.

— Paul Halmos

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The puzzle (from The mysterious temporal freeze) was:

A certain famous cat snarfs down an 11″x13″ pan of lasagna in 3 seconds flat. Assuming the fat feline has a bottomless pit for a stomach and continues to eat at the same rate, how long will it take him to devour a pasta the size of the state of Illinois?

Remember the Math Adventurer’s Rule: Figure it out for yourself! Whenever I give a problem in an Alexandria Jones story, I will try to post the answer soon afterwards. But don’t peek! If I tell you the answer, you miss out on the fun of solving the puzzle. Figure it out for yourself — and then check the answer just to prove that you got it right.

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Alexandria Jones stepped into the huge tent that protected her father’s excavation site from the desert winds. She laughed to herself. It was like walking into a circus.

She knelt down to whisper in the ear of her faithful dog Ramus. “In this ring, grad students carefully brush away another layer of sand. In the next ring, the artist sketches every piece as it is found.” She waved her arm. “And over there, our flashiest attraction — drum roll, please — the photographers shoot each shard of pottery from every possible angle. But where is the Master of Ceremonies?”

Alex and Rammy found Professor Jones near the back of the tent, talking to another student. While she waited for her dad, she looked through an assortment of numbered artifacts that were ready to be packed and sent to the museum.

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Oops! No Alexandria Jones post this week. My writing time has been overtaken by the monster school supply catalog (”Mom, haven’t you ordered my books yet?!“) and by yesterday’s co-op planning meeting and today’s 13 (so far!) follow up emails.

Planning a homeschool co-op is a little bit like juggling kittens. No matter how careful you are, something is going to get scratched. Several of the classes I was hoping for did not draw enough interest in the public polling, but of those that remain, I would like my students to study:

dd#1 — drama, photography, sewing, Spanish, writing, guitar, and biology lab
ds — drama, photography, writing, Spanish, guitar, PE/health, and maybe biology
dd#2 — art, sewing, cooking, music, science, and maybe PE/health
[Wouldn't you know it, not a single one of my kids wants to take any of their mom's math classes. ]

Problem: We only offer three class periods. And dd#1 plans to teach karate during one of those time slots.

Well, whatever else works or doesn’t work out, I sure hope we can get the lady who took these pictures to teach that photography class.

• my family
• homeschool co-op
• homeschooling

[Rescued from my old blog.]

As I get my notes together for today’s co-op classes, I’ll share a couple of blackboard quotes for your enjoyment:

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[Rescued from my old blog.]

Teen dd looks up from her Geometry book. “Hey, Mom, guess what? I finally figured out how palm reading works.”

Now there’s a career choice I really want to encourage, right?

With some tredpidation, I ask, “Um… How?”

“When you look at your hand,” she explains, “and it’s all covered with scars, then you know it’s time to declaw the cat!”

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Related Posts: my family