I finally got round to dealing with some maths for Shark, Squirrel and Tiger.
Flippin' Nora, that took hours. With maths, I have a lot of issues.
But communicating personal issues to kids is sort of inevitable, isn't it? I mean, you can have a phobic reaction to spiders, and you can assure your kids you DO NOT have that phobic reaction while you calmly climb into your hazard suit and strap a broom to a six foot pole to sweep that tiny spidery little fella out the house, if you like.
Then you can say to yourself, isn't it strange how the kids will pick up your radar of fear, no matter how well you disguise it! How on earth do they do that?
So I'm honest with Shark, Squirrel and Tiger. I tell them, I hated maths at school. It reduced me to tears. At some part of each week I'd be a quivering nervous wreck, dreading what Mrs D. could do to me.
Not surprisingly, I am seriously disadvantaged at maths today. I sweat, shake and my palms itch if you show me a page of numbers.
Of course I tried to make the scary numbery things all Dig's job, but he does fuck all, so I feel it's kind of onerous on me, I don't know why.
Maths would be easy to ignore, but then I fear the kids would be at some strange disadvantage in some indistinct future scenario, possibly regarding a mortgage or summat (like they won't be anyway!).
So, I launched my shaky soul over the hurdle again, and I tried to make maths positive. Even though my kids now look at numbers sideways with suspicion, and they know that I know they are not going to be the world's next maths geniuses. Upshot: we all look at each other and think, we should do something.
Well, I was overjoyed to get this link from Ditta, and we all enjoyed maths Vi's way.
Then, in response to me reading a lot of poo-poohing to her approach, I got cross and sat down and wrote this over there, right all over my kids new maths page.
Now I'm all exhausted. So I'm not writing anything else here.*
*I know this actually looks like writing, but it isn't. It's a brain dump. Some peelings... Grrlscientist & Fibonacci flim-flam.
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This lady here used to host a maths monday event, and the archives are very useful for approaching maths in a different way: http://freeplaylife.com/category/math-mondays/
The maths mom is a good one too: http://www.themathmom.com/MathResources.html
P.S. I hate maths too.
brilliant, kelly, thanks for the links, i shall continue to gather them up, and put ideas for stuff to do / places to go onto the kid maths page.
hopefully i can compile a list of resources over there in a way that is useful for us over time as bank of project areas and links. basically they are totally in charge of this one because i struggle with anything past snakes and ladders.
my 3 have been stuck on the hoodamaths site for what seems like years (despite me dangling other stuff at them). i say 'stuck' because it's the only site they routinely go to; i should be grateful i guess that tiger is skilled at several of the games now.
and maths monday *home ed style* ... active and creative ... that is a face-to-face workshop i would like (hosted by someone else's mama!). i don't suppose anyone runs that sort of regular experience within driving distance of me do they?!
I don't mind simple maths, but it's when it starts being higher math that I get into trouble. My eyes start to glaze over and I break out into a sweat. I have a definite anxiety attack when I have to do word problems. I am good at languages, those are my cup of tea. I'm an intuitive thinker. Did you ever think about getting a tutor?
I can balance my accounts (although I'm even better at creative accounting) and calculate my shopping total as I go round the supermarket but anything beyond basic arithmetic and entry level algebra goes right over the top of my head. This is probably why I failed my Maths O level three times ;-(
My personal opinion is that there is a special bit of brain for Maths and not everyone is born with that bit. However, everyone should be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide (with or without pen and paper) and the rest of it can be left to those who care - oops, I mean those who have the special bit of brain ;-)
2 of 3 now out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOIP_Z_-0Hs&feature=youtu.be
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