Saturday, May 4, 2013

Why do you need this? A little perspective on the essential elements of math.

At the end of the school year, the days can become l.o.n.g........

Amidst the general distractions of spring and end of the year fatigue it is easy for both parents and children become discouraged and questioning.

One particular area of whining complaint questioning is often the area of math.

"Why do we need to do this.................
...............................square roots, algebra, metric system?"

To be honest, at times I have wondered the same thing.  Sometimes you just want to say "Let's just call quits on the parts of  that cause such struggles within our homeschool." 

Here is a link that addresses those questions.  While some of the comments are a little off base, read them for the gems they contain.

This is an article from Math Mammoth's author Maria Miller

It also includes links to some resources you will want to investigate.

Read this and share it with your students, especially the high school students.  While I had not thought of all the reasons recently, it is true that algebra is needed for any science field, any medical field - especially the practice fields of nursing!

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Totally Random, but really Interesting!

Having grown up on a farm; studied wildlife biology as a major in college; married someone who majored in wildlife biology; taught biology for many years;  had two sons who worked as junior curators at the science museum and lived in the woods for 30 years --- well, I found this totally fascinating.

I hope you enjoy learning how snakes move in this video from the National Science Foundation.  I think your kids will!