Norton Juster, the beloved author of The Phantom Tollbooth, passed recently, and his passing reminded me of our reading that book together. His passing may have had some influence on my choice to revisit some of the things we have previously learned in math. Visiting old friends is often rewarding. We find out things about them that we never knew or understood before. When I was a child my parents used to go see several people in an afternoon and they called those visits “ drop-ins.” Between now and next Friday we will have dropped in to visit multiplication of numbers up to three digits, long division, calculations of time, money, and speed, and measurement of length, volume, and weight.

Since St. Patrick’s Day was during the week last week, we wrote some Limericks. They were fun. We started with fill in the blank limericks, then progressed to write your own. I couldn’t help it. It’s the Irish in me!

Magnus Chase has returned!!! The pace of our math review has given us enough time to return to a read aloud, and enjoy the antics of Magnus Chase. I have missed the read alouds, and I think the students have too.

I want to leave you with a thought. Jamie York, a Waldorf math teacher, and a person who stands tall on my list of Waldorf master teachers ( and who has several wonderful lectures on YOUTube) reiterates two things about math over and over.

When you introduce a new concept in math, do not expect the child to be able to fully understand it and do it the first year, or the second year, but in the THIRD YEAR, they should own it. I could expound for days about this statement. I believe that some of you would not have failed a math class in school had you been given the opportunity to absorb the concepts in your own way, in your own time… well, you don't have time to read my exposition. Think on that, though, and know that this is the way I am approaching your child and their understanding of math.
Math is not just learning math facts. If a child does not understand WHY, they will never understand math at all. This particularly comes into play when we enter the world of “take away” and add to “when it relates to place value, but has even greater ramifications in upper division math classes”. I was fortunate to have a high school math teacher who encouraged the word WHY. Unfortunately for my parents, I carried that over into every part of my life!

Have a great week.

Blessings,

Kathee