Math dreams meeting May 20, 2013
What do you want? When it comes to math, what are your dreams for your kids? We started the parent meeting from these questions.
Affirming your values helps with well-being, thinking, and connecting with others. What do people want for the kids? Connections of math to all aspects of life; pursuing your own meaningful paths in math; support with struggles and help with flying high; seeing the wonder and beauty of math…
And every parent named numerous problems with her own math experiences, and wished her kids a different fate.
When we worked on questions that can help with dreams, it quickly became clear that what we want is still in the realm of sci-fi. This world is still far, far away from giving us ready answers for our questions, such as:
- Where do kids find help for THEIR math – art math, dump truck math, the math of infinity (when you are four)? Is there a system that can guide you from one concept to the next, given your interests, your learning history, and your favorite things in life?
- How come there are no “math play” or “math support” groups, and how do you form them?
- What about the epidemic of math anxiety?
- Is there an easy and quick way to find stuff rich in math and relevant to your passion – books, games, activities?
The above list is what people care about. Curriculum developers, take note! No math curricula even attempt to tackle such questions.
That’s why we have to take matters into our own hands. If we know what we want for our kids, it’s up to us to take steps toward it! A thoughtful discussion is a good beginning.
P.S. More good parent questions are at “Ask Moby Snoodles” – give it a try!
Posted in Grow
Math Goggles #11 – Just Listen
All the Math Goggles challenges so far had to do with noticing math with your eyes. But for this week’s challenge, let’s try to just listen.
Let’s listen to the math in what our children talk about. I don’t mean like when we ask them what they did today in preschool, kindergarten or school. And I don’t mean like when we quiz them on how many teddy bears are in the room or what shape is the kitchen table.
Let’s listen to the math children bring up on their own. Our contributor, Malke Rosenfeld of Math in Your Feet, frequently describes such math chats on her blog. Here’s an example from her recent post:
Seven-year-old is pushing cart around the store, narrating as she goes: “Go forward, now one quarter turn to the right, now go forward, parallel park. Okay, now turn half way around, go straight, one quarter turn…”
Here’s my six-year-old who is waiting impatiently for his first baby tooth to fall out, but it seems it won’t ever happen:
Mama, I have a tiny hope, and it’s quickly approaching zero, that this tooth will fall out soon.
Or David Wees’s “Decomposing Fractions” post, in which he retells a conversation with his son:
Daddy, I’m full. I had 1 and a half…no, one and a quarter slices of pizza which is the same as five quarters of pizza,” said my son at dinner tonight…
By the way, David’s whole project, Math Thinking, is about children sharing their mathematical thoughts.
So this week, let’s just listen. You might be surprised at how your child looks at things, at math ideas she explores on her own, and at mathematical reasoning behind what she says.
You may also share your observations here on the blog.
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Posted in Grow
What are your math dreams? If we don’t stand up to Napoleon, who will? Newsletter May 15, 2013
I am Moby Snoodles, and I love to hear from you at moby@moebiusnoodles.com
Talking about the book: mini-course for parents
We are talking with many people about math ed.
When it comes to math and children, what do you want? What are your dreams?
This is what we ask. It gives people pause; it brings out passions. And then other questions come up – because what people want tends to be very, very far away from the current reality.
The questions start pouring in. How do I start? What resources should I use and where do I find them? Is my dream even possible? Has anyone done it before and succeeded?
One thing became clear in these conversations. Yes, online hubs like our Q&A platform help, especially when you have a specific question or two. For example, this Monday, Malke the math dancer wondered if attributes of dance constitute variables, and if we are doing algebra while choreographing. But someone who is just starting out is likely to have dozens of questions all at once. Or they might not have any questions because the subject is so new and overwhelming.
People want and need small, active support groups that can share dreams, brainstorm plans, and make things happen. Moreover, this brave undertaking has to be reasonably casual.
As a member of the National Association of Math Circles board, I often get into discussions of why don’t we have more Math Circles. I think I know why. Because too many people conceptualize Math Circles as hardcore endeavors that require the support of a university or a big corporation, and a highly educated leader working a gazillion hours a week to prepare and implement activities.
The model we are developing only requires a few interested people: a couple of parents whose kids are friends, a small homeschool coop, or a playgroup. Our pilot to test the model will be a mini-course online. The goal is to help participants start a local math playgroup or informal club. We think of the course as a MOOC (Massively Open Online Course), not because we want it large, but because it feels open and connected.
If you think you may want to start a math playgroup, and to participate in a course that will help, drop me a line!
Doing good: reasons people pay for the Moebius Noodles PDF
Our book has the open Creative Commons license, and is available as a download where people name their own price: https://naturalmath.com/TheBook Some people download for free, which is great. We are very happy about the sales. We sell about the same number of digital files as we do paper books. People have good reasons to pay, and to name fair prices! So, people pay to…
- …Support further Moebius Noodles projects
- …Express appreciation of the art and content of the book
- …Feed the authors of the project
- …Be a hero of quality mathematics education
- …Share math all around the world (we get a much more international crowd for electronic sales)
- …Help to prove that open access and open licences are good ideas
All these reasons work! The Moebius Noodles team feels supported, and is doing more projects, like the parent course. Other excellent math authors are already working with us on more advanced young math booklets, which will also be available under open licenses. Other authors join in making their existing projects open, such as Don Cohen’s “Calculus for 7 year olds” and “Map to Calculus.” Volunteer teams are translating Moebius Noodles into Spanish, Persian, Russian, and Hebrew at a crowd-translation platform: http://crowdin.net/project/MoebiusNoodles We use CrowdIn for free, because we are a Creative Commons project. Email me if you want to start another language.
Thank you for your continuing support! Our math love to you!
Blogs and networking
Unschooling Lifestyle is celebrating the name “Moebius Noodles” with some Mobius Strip activities and resources, such as Vi Hart’s story “Wind and Mr. Ug.”
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Michael Kelly is chatting with us on Facebook about the Fibonacci Day 5/8/13.
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At her “Math Mama Writes” blog, Sue VanHattum talks about the role of Creative Commons open licence in decisions to read and to buy books. Here are some comments on the post. The first one refers to our note by the “Download PDF” button: “You choose how much you want to pay, and type the number here. Support Moebius Noodles as you can, from zero to infinity!”
Denise Gaskins:
I wonder how they would process a payment of “infinity” for the pdf…
Butterfly:
What a brilliant book! I have just devoured the PDF and am eager to buy the hard copy … just deciding how many copies :)
Denise Gaskins:
How many copies: Our church has a lot of young couples, so I plan to buy a copy for every new baby shower. In fact, I wish I had enough spare money to get one for every kid in the nursery now…
In the next few days, we will be adding an option for groups to save on shipping when they order multiple copies. I know it is welcome news for learning coops, math circles, and simply groups of friends who want to do math together. Right now buying an extra copy saves almost four dollars on shipping.
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In related news, we greatly simplified the PDF download based on the comments of Vlad Kuznetsov on Facebook. Now it’s quicker and easier – thanks Vlad!
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Here is our crowdfunder Dor Abrahamson, giving his Supporter Certificate a visual “Like!” Send us photos of kids, friends and colleagues enjoying the book or playing math games from it!
Sharing
You are welcome to share the contents of this newsletter online or in print. You can also remix and tweak anything here as you wish, as long as you share your creations on the same terms. Please credit MoebiusNoodles.com
More formally, we distribute all Moebius Noodles content under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license: CC BY-NC-SA
Talk to you again on May 30th!
Moby Snoodles, aka Dr. Maria Droujkova
Posted in Newsletter
Newsletter April 30, 2013
I am Moby Snoodles, and I love to hear from you at moby@moebiusnoodles.com
Book news
This week, the paper books will be on the way to the crowdfunder supporters and to the first buyers. I am happy with the quality of the paper, the binding, and the colors. Yes, it is great to hold this object, this physical book in your hand! Once the book arrives, please send us photos of yourselves and your kids enjoying it. We are starting a collection!
There are two translation efforts under way: Russian and Persian. If you are interested in translating the book into your language, please let me know.
We are starting to meet with parent, educator, and techie groups interested in implementing the book ideas and more. There is much hunger for advanced, playful math that children make for themselves – following their unique dreams and needs. We are working on support systems for people who pledge to this cause, so we can meet one another, and find as much resources and encouragement as needed to help the children. Everywhere we bring these ideas, there are offers of support from parents, educators, and business leaders.
If you would like us to meet with parents in your learning coop or playgroup, in person or online, let me know!
Blogs and networking
We had to make a mirror for the site, because the traffic exceeded limits several times in the last weeks. Welcome, new friends and colleagues!
Math Forum at Drexel, one of the oldest and largest math educator hubs online, included news of the Moebius Noodles book launch in its April newsletter. This is the feature icon they gave us:
It has a dragon curve on it – quite appropriate for the adventurous math! The dragon curve also goes well with our chapter on fractals. You can use it to make up other roleplaying fractal curves.
Moebius Noodles had a guest post at the Scientific American’s blog on raising science-literate kids. Here is the beginning of the post:
Children dream big. They crave exciting and beautiful adventures and they love to pretend-play. Just ask them who they want to be when they grow up. The answers will run the gamut from astronauts to zoologists and from ballerinas to Jedi masters. So how come children don’t dream of becoming mathematicians?
Kids don’t dream of becoming mathematicians because they already are mathematicians. Children have more imagination than it takes to do differential calculus. They are frequently all too literate like logicians and precise like set theorists. They are persistent, fascinated with strange outcomes and are out to explore the “what-if” scenarios. These are the qualities of good mathematicians!
Sharing
You are welcome to share the contents of this newsletter online or in print. You can also remix and tweak anything here as you wish, as long as you share your creations on the same terms. Please credit MoebiusNoodles.com
More formally, we distribute all Moebius Noodles content under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license: CC BY-NC-SA
Talk to you again on May 15th!
Moby Snoodles, aka Dr. Maria Droujkova
Posted in Newsletter
