#53 For All Ages

For All Ages

Grown-ups: Help children capture steps in algorithms in some form – silly pictures, words, symbols. Help children to see the mathematical value of precise commands, to reuse and combine good algorithms, and to debug silly ones. Share ways you organize complex, multi-step actions in your life, such as to-do lists, flowcharts, computer programs and so on.

Babies: Use “mix-up” gags about routine tasks! Put socks on your hands and pants on your head. Hold a toy cow and claim that it says “Woof” – or point at the baby’s belly button and say, “Where is your nose? Is this your nose?”

Toddlers and Young Kids: Even before children are verbal, they use gestures to tell parents what to do and what they want. You can play silly robot games with these “baby signs” after they are established well. Just make sure to laugh with the child, not at the child.

Big Kids: Progress to more complex tasks and those that involve repetition, such as doing the same fold on all sides of an origami project, or decorating a room with several pictures. This promotes reuse of algorithms and their parts – that is, cycles or iterations.