Today your mission is…
Look at this mini-poster of 60 creative behaviors that support mathematics. Here is the same list in plain text. Recall an example of your child doing something from this list - either in mathematics, or in another context. In hindsight, what would have been a good way for you to support this creativity?
Ready, Set, Go
In Breakpoint and Beyond, George Land and Beth Jarman describe a longitudinal study they conducted on 1,600 kindergarten children ages three to five. They gave them eight tests on divergent thinking and an astonishing 98% of the children scored within the creative genius category. The researchers repeated the tests in five and ten years and separately tested adults. It gets worse and worse with time: only 2% of adults score at creative genius level. The good news is that grown-ups can collaborate with kids.
There are quite a few tasks children do better than adults, especially when adults support them. Other tasks adults do better than children, but even then adults can benefit from inspiration and prompts from children. In a harmonious learning environment, adults and children play complementary roles.
Adults
Children
Ideas
Write ideas down, sort and organize sets of examples, articulate knowledge
Generate diverse, creative, novel, unexpected ideas
Mathematics
Maintain consistency of patterns, extend patterns with new examples
Open up and maintain free play, break patterns to create new patterns
Process
Organize the process, manage time and tasks, maintain group well-being, nurture
Sense poor management practices, quickly show when well-being is in danger (“the canary”), invoke empathy and joy
Applications
Connect ideas to many life experiences and examples
Connect ideas to unexpected examples, look at familiar things from new angles
Aesthetics
Appreciate order and systems
Appreciate beauty and adventure
Frequently Asked Question
Can young children really understand advanced math concepts?
We believe that to be understood, a math concept (and pretty much anything else in life) has to be well-explained. The key is to search for age-appropriate explanations of advanced math concepts. For young children, the most appropriate explanation is through hands-on exploration and free play.
This means we need to find physical objects to represent mathematical concepts. But these should be objects that do not require prior knowledge to be played with. We call such objects and activities around them “grounded”. Grounded activities lower the risk of math anxiety. Plus, by selecting “no prerequisites required” activities, you avoid the “snowball effect” of sequential, prerequisite-filled learning.
The task
1. Find an example of a child’s creative behavior.
2. Do we have your example in our list of 60 behaviors, or should we add it?
3. How can grown-ups support the child in your example?
Answer by lisa.koops · Apr 16, 2014 at 02:37 PM
My daughters create "mash-ups" of songs - take one line from one song, one from another, and add a little bit of their own - with consideration for how the phrases fit together musically. This fits with #37 in a way. I believe the grown-up support depends on the child. I did a research study on this, actually - adult behaviors that enhance or inhibit children's musical play. For some children eye contact, encouragement, and interest was supportive, but for others it shut down their play. My 7-year-old blooms creatively under adult interest and affirmation; my 2-year-old seems to thrive with her sister's presence or that of a peer.
Answer by ChristyM · Apr 16, 2014 at 10:10 PM
One of my children really enjoys making sculptures from our clean trash. I support his habit by providing materials, space, and allowing enough free time in his schedule. I also affirm his projects.
Another child plays a lot of pretend. I could support this better by providing more little animals and some dedicated props. I could also spend time playing with her.
I am intrigued by the idea of adult child collaboration, and am looking forward to pursuing that idea further.
Answer by shaunteaches · Apr 17, 2014 at 01:09 PM
My son is three years old and loves to sort color, shapes and patterns. I found that puzzles really help him develop these skills. At first he spent his time learning what the puzzle was all about and what it means for a piece to "fit" with another. In one sitting he seemed to develop a real sense of these concepts and then just took off from there. Once he understood the rules of puzzle making and the ways in which the shapes fit together, he could make a puzzle.
I think the same will apply as he learns mathematics. I just need to give him time to get settled and understand the basic structure and pattern to any system he is analyzing.
Answer by alex73 · Apr 19, 2014 at 12:55 PM
1. Seeing a new machine (real or video) and building it from Lego
2. Please add it, probably.
3. Explain what is probably inside the machine and how it works
Answer by charlotte.mazur · Apr 26, 2014 at 02:36 AM
She is so creative it is tough to pick out just one example. One really neat way she just started is writing her own songs/tunes and writing down the patterns in a way she understands so she can play the same tune/music over and over again. She doesn't read music and hasn't been to a music class outside of the music they teach in her 1st grade class so she doesn't have formal education surrounding it but she has come up with a way that works for her. It is fascinating to see.
@charlotte.mazur - can you photograph and attach here a sample of your daughter's music notation? Sounds fascinating! Glad you are not trying to replace it with the traditional notation right away. Designing your own symbols develops the mind, and it is a staple of their work for both scientists and artists!
Answer by monikkem · Apr 27, 2014 at 10:32 AM
He has special Edu. Needs. He has an analytical mind and needs to see and do to believe. Finds paper folding relaxing. Enjoys nature and anything factual and /or unusual.
Got him to read books and watch online movies about origami. Stwrted very simply-planes, but is starting to make more complex 3D creations.
It has been a pleasure to see the interesting shapes and patterns he is starting to make.
@monikkem - does your son like to follow other people's designs in origami, or does he try to make up his own, or both? Traditionally, origami artists do focus on nature! I wonder why the love of nature and the love of origami often go together...
Answer by njbillips · Apr 28, 2014 at 11:30 AM
Though she hasn't had music class outside of school, my girl (6) loves music. During some of the (many) snow days we had, she spent time writing songs (including the music for them), and "playing" them on the guitar. She played around a lot with the rhythms - we just gave her lots of space and let her work. It can be difficult to give that kind of time, but the snow days were perfect for just letting her explore.
Answer by Silina · May 05, 2014 at 03:11 PM
I absolutely in love with the ideas so TRIZ, especially the ideal system (an absent system) idea. I am always surprised to see how my toddler finds the ways to incorporate different object into ideal systems.
1. She made her a seating spot out of a plastic box, so she can watch me more comfortable everywhere. It is very easy to take with her.
2. 38 I think, though i just realized that her box idea is not math.
3. I offered her another box a table, plus paper and a pencil and she has a research station :)
Answer by jjuday · May 08, 2014 at 09:38 AM
Currently, my child's favorite on this list would be #43, specifically around Minecraft. We support him by playing with him, and getting him to show us what he has been building.
Another area that has been fun has been the hallway chalkboard. It is a space for playing with numbers. One game has been adding and subtracting really ridiculously long numbers, just for the fun of it, because he thinks it is so cool that he can do math that is in the millions and billions and on. So, maintaiing that chalkboard as a place to play is another one.
Answer by Elena Cook · May 08, 2014 at 04:02 PM
My older kids like to build. My 7 years old son is a building maniac. He likes to build things in accordance with instruction booklets( Lego, K'Nex etc) but then tries to modify them looking for more sufficiently working designs. Several times he found mistakes in building diagrams of manuals, corrected them and was very satisfied with the perfectly working models. My oldest daughter likes to design and create. She uses Scratch program to design her futuristic Tiger Land.
We do more than a half of the listed activities. Kids love puzzles( my son has an ability to rotate puzzle pieces in his mind and just let you know which piece goes where), board games(Clue, Ticket to Ride etc), challenging problems and many more things which can tease their minds. As a supporting parent I try to provide them with activities utilizing TRIZ concepts and nurture their desire to become creative thinkers.
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