Well, I apologize for the spotty posting. This last week has been crazy. In addition to the NerdPie’s birthday, there is the normal craziness;). I would love to say it is going to immediately be better but that may be a lie. We have decided that this may be my hardest pregnancy. I am exhausted (which doesn’t lend itself to great rhetoric), tired and my arm has been tingling. My doctor’s office says it is probably carpel tunnel and stay off the computer. But, you know how addictions go;). So I just wanted to explain. More blogging later!
NerdFamily is going to be the host for this weeks Christian Carnival on June 14th. So I am calling for submissions! Christian blog writers share their best posts from the previous week. (Topic is not necessarily about Christianity, but the writer must be Christian to qualify.) Also next Thursday is the first Carnival of Pregnancy! So I am calling for posts. They can be educational, humorous or just what is going on in your life. You do not need to be pregnant to qualify;).
Books. I know that sounds odd but I believe that it is true. As I have done research on different methods on education I seem to hear a resounding theme. Whether you are classical or unschooling, everyone wants to go beyond boxed curriculum. NerdDad had told me a while ago about reading something from John Gatto (an award winning teacher). It was that kids weren’t reading books but “exerpts”. Because of this I hear people saying that it is better to not use curriculum and just surround your children with quality books and their natural curiousity will take over. So I begain reflecting on my own educational past. I was a voracious reader and would read just about anything. I loved biographies and they inspired me to study what I would need to learn (math and science) in order to acheive. I was inspired to learn about history by reading historical novels. One particular example of that was anything by Bodie and Brock Thoene. I would check the facts that were in their many series. I went on to learn about the facts of World War II but also the social issues that were behind it. I was inspired by Science Fiction to find out about real science and how far we had already come. The area reading probably influenced the most was religion. I loved reading the Bible but also books by authors sharing their own experience. So why doesn’t traditional schooling have just reading as a major component to education? I really don’t have any idea. I think it could be fear. Fear that the kids will go beyond their prescribed areas of reading. Fear that kids won’t like reading. Fear that they will not be able to measure a child’s growth. But, I think you can pair curriculm with a love a reading. I hope to be able to tailor an education program to whatever crazy thing it is the kids are currently enjoying reading about. The nice thing about a small “class” is that I will have that freedom. Don’t get me wrong, there will be some school books but in limited areas. I think when we study history and other social sciences there is no reason to abandon the rich literature we have available to us. Perhaps this will teach more than dates and times but also logic. I suppose what I hope the most is that it will inspire my children to be brilliant and all that they could ever dream for themselves.
So the NerdPie has just done so many cute, funny things today so I decided she deserved a post of her own. She is just an adorable mess of blond curls. This afternoon I was making lunch and she was getting a book. Nearby the Nerdling was standing in his walker (none of my kids have ever walked in the walker, a blessing!) and he reached out and touched the NerdPie’s arm. She comes running onto the kitchen telling me how the baby likes her arm. I reassure her that he does and that is wonderful. About a minute later you hear her yelling, “See mom he really likes my arm”. I look across the stove at her and she is laying her arm across the tray of the walker and the baby is patting it. Later today, I was on the computer (what a shock) and the NerdPie was watching a cooking show with me and sitting in a chair. Dad and the boys were all down the hall putting laundry away (yes, I am spoiled). I look over and she has her foot next to her face. I asked her what she was doing and she loudly pronounces, “I am loving my foot”. She procedes to kiss her toes. I tell her that her feet are dirty so she asks if she can kiss them when they are clean. What do you say to such perfect logic?
I think that this may be nerd over load for me right now. It would take me forever to figure it out. Oh no, if NerdDad sees this, I may never get him back;). To this date only 3 people have ever solved it. You can download it for free here. Here is the “anatomy”:
These are Rubik’s cubes of the form 3d, with the original popular puzzle being 33. We label the puzzles like this because they are a d-dimensional cube broken into 3d smaller pieces or “cubies” of the same dimension. For example, the 3D cube has 33 or 27 total 3-dimensional cubies.
Each of the d-dimensional cubies could be considered to have its faces covered by stickers of one smaller (d-1) dimension. But each cubie also only exposes a subset of its stickers to the “outside”, meaning these are the stickers you could see if you lived and operated in d dimensions. We can use the number of exposed stickers as a classification of cubie types. For the 3D case, the 27 cubies are broken into 4 types, those that expose 0 stickers, 1 sticker (“centers”), 2 stickers (“edges”), or 3 stickers (“corners”). Each sticker on a given cubie has its own color, so we could also call these 1-colored, 2-colored, etc. pieces.
Ok, the Nerd Family has a new show. It is on Discovery Channel and is Cash Cab. We Nerd Parents love it because it has many rapid fire quiz questions (we love to compete with each other;) but what we didn’t forsee is how much the kids would love it. The premise of the show is a cab driving around New York. He picks up people and they can answer questions all the way to their destination and earn money. But, (and there is always a but, isn’t there) if you get 3 questions wrong you are kicked out. Now, one of the reasons I find my children’s enjoyment so scary is the actual point they enjoy. NerdBug loves it when the contestants get questions wrong and both of the older ones laugh very loudly when they are kicked out. But, the part I love is hearing the 2 older ones “playing” Cash Cab. NerdBug always acts as the driver and the NerdPie is the passenger. NerdPie will get in and be “schocked” that it is a gameshow. NerdBug will actually quiz her on things she knows. Everything from Bible Trivia to counting to tv trivia. Occasionally she gets kicked out. When NerdDad and I heard them doing this the first couple of times we just stood in the kitchen and laughed. It is so stinkin cute!
