Musings

Mood: Happy
Listening to: J S Bach

I recommend that you always check the price on two stores whenever you buy anything.

If everyone did this, than the prices would drop.
Here is why.  If 4 stores sold the same box of soap for 1, 2, 3 and 4 dollars.

If 20 people bought soap,  we might reasonably assume that randomly each store whould
be visited by 10 shoppers, i.e.  (20 x 2 )  / 4 = 10.

Those who looked in the $4 store would not buy there.
But the people who looked in the $1 store would buy there.
so the sales would be
Price    Quantity Sold
$ 1         10
$ 2          5
$ 3          5
$ 4          0

The most expensive store would not sell any and would have to lower the price.
The least expensive store would get most sales.

This means that you don't have to get the cheapest price to influence the
store keepers.

Keep this in mind when you buy.


Happy Christmas

Mood: Optimistic

Play number games with food - nuts grapes, vegatables  carrot
and even occasional candies.  Your child will be motivated
to pay attention if they cam win raisins for good observations.
It also makes the games tactile!


I found the Link Ranks site yesterday.  http://www.pubsub.com
 and  http://psi.pubsub.com/20040413:linkranks:1

The idea of LinkRanks is excellent.  My suggestion to LinksRanks is:

Linksranks would be most useful if it could identify those blogs
that were becoming more popular while they still are relatively unknown.

If you were to look at your archives of the blogs that have grown  in the last 1 , 2 , 4 weeks and 1 , 2 , 4, 8 months and see the pattern of growth, you could become influential by predicting important issues early.

This might lead to recognizing how issues become important.
Identify people, sites  or tools that bring the issues to popular attention. Tools are simply a person's clever idea put into a computer.

Rather like the stock market you might track the sites by size of popularity with lists of  " Up and Coming Blogs and Sites".

So you could break up the sites into  large popular, medium popular,
and small high growth sites.
The new ideas would come from the small popularity, high growth sites.

 This could be like finding  Microsoft or  Google or Ebay or Java many years ago.   When they first started no one  thought that they would be successful.
 

If LinkRanks does this then it can help drive the evolution of the Web.

Mood: Happy
Listening to: Imagine

Here is how to teach your child judgment,the first of those essential skills that will keep him safe.

Mathematics,  measurement,  judgement,  skill building,  life.
Putting it all together.

Quote:  " The right action at the wrong time  - is the wrong action!" -  CB.

Pilots are trained on flight simulators.
It they make a mistake it does not kill anyone  and they learn how to be good pilots.

You can tell you child: "Here is a 'life simulator'".
"I will teach you how to cross the road so you do not get hurt while you learn".
 "If a car hits you, you may be badly hurt. We want to prevent that".

Tell him "You ARE NOT to cross the street by yourself unless you give permission from me.  I am saying this as I love you and want to keep you safe".

The simulation trainer!  (When they have learned it, ask them what skills they learned).
The skills learned are:
How long does it take to walk across the street?
How long does it take to a car to drive along the street?
Learn to judge the distance and speed of approaching cars.

The steps:

1. Learn to count time "Mark, One, Two, Three , ...  Ten".   Teach your child to count seconds.   Practice with a clock or watch.
2.  See how long it takes to cross the road.
3. Go with your child to stand at the edge of the street. Pick a quiet street where cars pass by every 1 minute of so.  (You can choose the time of day when the traffic is light).
4. Tell your child: "Let's see how much time we need to walk across the street".
5. When the street is clear walk with the child,  count the time it takes to walk across. (Stand away from the edge of the sidewalk as many drivers will slow down if the see a child trying to cross the street.  By standing away from the edge of the street the driver will know you do not want to cross.)

6. Now let's apply the skill.  Stand at the edge of the street.   "ALWAYS LOOK BOTH WAYS!".   As the car approaches ask your child if it is safe to cross.
Ask you child to say: "Safe to Cross", when it is safe.  If you agree, say: "OK, Walk!".   Explain that you are the part of the simulator, and
they must not go until you  say "OK, Walk!".

This approach allows the child to use his judgment, but since you give  final permission, you hear your child's decision without the child getting hurt if they are wrong.
Repeat this exercise many times.  Let your child direct when you both walk across the street.

7.  When you reach other side, praise your child for their good judgment.

Your child's judgment will improve quite rapidly.

Your child will enjoy the sense of control and participation in the decision making.

If  your child is uncertain if it is safe,   tell your child to wait.

 A good rule is:  " Err on the side of caution.  If in doubt, wait, - and count".

The value of this method is that you learn the child's judgment, and you and you child will see the improvement.

When do you teach the skill?  Whenever the child is able. People under estimate the abilities of children.
 
By counting you can use numbers to help make important decisions.

After you have done this for a week on the same street, you can do it on other streets.

(Whenever you are crossing the street,  you can let your child tell you if it is safe but you have the final say.)

Let the child see that wide streets need more time to cross  and that cars travel at different speeds.

Encourage the child that if they are unsure that they are not to cross, but should time the  approaching car and see if they were correct. In this way your child judgment will improve. You child has now mastered a real skill and can be proud and confident.
 
You are well on the way to having a safe driver and one who uses measurement to help make better decisions.

Summary: Do not start across the street until it is safe to do so.
It is safe when you can walk across the street and reach the other side before a car comes.
Once you step off  the sidewalk, keep walking; do not stop until you are safe on the other side. Keep watching both ways for traffic.  If a car approaches suddenly and you feel danger then you may run to the sidewalk is closest to you.  
 
"Learn from other peoples mistake,  you don't have time to make them all yourself". 

Recommended book:  Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas
by Seymour Papert  - He describes how to  debug.
Debugging is  learning from your mistakes. An essential skill.


http://www.amazon.com for reviews.

Mood: Stressed

Get  your child to make up   75 pennies, bagging them as usual.

Put out 21 pennies, i.e. 2 bags and 1.
Now put out  11 pennies. i.e. 1 bag and one unit.

Ask you child how many  pennies are in total?   Start taking the pennies out of  the bag to count then.

If you do this a few times, (or maybe the even first time) the child will object as he starts thinking of a bag as a group.  He sees that he can save time.
Praise him and tell him that mathematics is all about saving time and learning lots that is not  immediately obvious.  That this is how computer work and most of the  everyday things he sees around him: phone, TV, CD player, DV, PC.

When this moment occurs, he has made the discovery that makes arithmetic easy.

He has realized that you can count the bags without opening them.

Now play a game giving him   23 and 31  in bags and pennies and let
him tell you how many he has.

Write 9 cards 5 cm high with the numbers   1,2,3  ... 9 on a card.

Get him to show you how many bag and how many units (pennies) he has.

Write  a card   with the following:  
 BAG  
 of
 10      Units

Place the number under the correct column.

Show him that  25 is different from 52  i.e. 2 bags of 10,  that the
position of the numbers is what matters.
When you get to 100.  point out that the o allows you to have
no bags of 10  , or no units.   

This is a huge concept, invented by the Arabs.


Soon he will realise that you can add the numbers instead of the bags.

Make one Bag of 100  pennies.

Now her can see that this is just another group.

From this you can start back to the sheet with a million.

you may want take a sheet of 1/4inch or   5mm squared paper.

The 8 1/2 x 11 inch has 32 x 44 squares.
   Mark off
1 unit
a row of 10
a square of 10 x 10   i.e. 100, 200, 300, 400 up to 1000 etc.

Now you child is thinking in an abstract way.

The next idea is to get him to think in terms of carrying
i.e.  replacing a 10 units with 1 bag of ten; 10 bags of 10 with 1 bag of one 100 etc.

We are well on the way to teaching addition and subtraction multiplication
and division.

Mood: Happy
Listening to: Elgar's Pomp ...

Give your child some small cloth or paper bags, each to hold 10 pennies.
Take a  sheet of paper. 
 Mark 10 circles on the paper from left to right "1", "2", "3", ... ,"10".
Let your child use this to count groups of 10 pennies from a pile of pennies.

Show him how to make bags of ten pennies.  Call it a "Bag of Ten".
Give him 25 pennies for him to count.
When he done so say: "You are counting as big people do", and
 "You have 2 Bags of Ten and 5 pennies."

Write down 20 and show him this means 2 "Bags of Ten".

Take another sheet of paper and mark 100 circles with 10 rows of 10 circles,
writing 1 2 3 ... 10 on the first row,
and    11 12 13 ... on the 2nd row,
and    21 22 23 on the 3rd row.
Continue up to 100.

On the left side put a big "0" beside the first row
a "1" beside the 2nd row; a "2" beside the third row etc.

Now let him count piles of pennies by covering up
the circles and then lift off the last coin to see
how many coins are in the pile.

Point out that each row is a "Bag of Ten".
Tell him that 20 means that you have 2 Bags of Ten and no units. (0 units).

Play this game for 10 minutes each dayfor a week.

Name the numbers:
"One-ty", Two-ty, "Three-ty", "Four-ty" etc.  This is consistent and
lets the child learn the rules.

After a week you can explain that adults have different words for
the numbers from 11-20, and 30. i.e. tht it is called "Twenty" not "Two-ty" etc.

Mood: Relaxed
Listening to: The Wall

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine"
Your child can recognise the sounds of the numbers.
This is how to teach him to read the numbers up to 9.
Put 9 pennies and place them side by side on a sheet of paper.
Draw a circle around each number. (You can use different colour markers).
Write the number "1" in the left circle. Write "2" in the next circle.
Write 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 in the other circles.

How to teach him to read the numbers.

Give him 1 coin. Cover the 1.
Now say: "This is 1 penny, and here is what the 1 looks like".
Now uncover the '1'  and point to it.
Do this 4 times. Let him play doing it if he wants.

Next day give cover up 1 and 2. Now say this is 1, 2  pennies,
covering the circles with 1 and 2. Then uncover the 2 and say:
"You have 2 pennies and this is what 2 looks like".


Take the pennies, hand him 1 or 2 pennies and ask him of many he has.
Get him to cover the circles starting from the left and then uncover the last one to show the answer.
As long as he is getting the idea use more pennies.   
Be sure to praise him when he give you the correct answer.  
If he is incorrect, just say the correct number.
(Do not say: "You are wrong" or any other negative comment!)

Always praise your child when he does something you like!

After a few days you can:
A: Hand him some pennies and ask  how are there?
OR
B: Say: "Can you give me 4 pennies, please?"
He should cover up 4 circles and then hand you those coins.

Play this game until he can consistently recognise numbers up to 9
and count coins up to 9.

When you go out point out numbers you see and count things.

Mood: Happy
Listening to: Imagine

Teach your child the directions "left" and "right".

Only teach one word at a time.  If you choose to teach "left", then do not mention "right" for about a month, until the meaning of 'left' is firmly fixed in your child's mind. 
(Call the other  "other direction" - but try not to mention it.)

The advantage of teaching "left" - is that 'right' has many meanings, as in
'you have the right to ...' which are quite confusing.    And this use of 'rights' is  often heard on TV news.

Think of all the other meanings of "left"  (e.g. as a verb) and avoid them until the directions  learned.

Ask you child to help set the table, placing the fork on the left.
Later: Learn how to teach your child to cross the road safely.

You will see many opportunities  to use the word in conversation.

Book for Teenagers:  John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider," published in 1976. It is  a description of the internet and hacking and ID theft.   A brilliant book as it describes  the current internet but was written 28 years ago.
See also:  http://www.mactonnies.com/dystopian.html

Mood: Thinking

Swings: postponed.

Every child  by 1 year old should see  clock with hands
- this is how the child will  learn "clockwise". 
Only point out "clockwise"  - wait until this is learned well before
mentioning "anti clockwise".    This concept may take a few months.
It is essential to have it firmly learned as it is hard to deduce.
BUT

The origin of clockwise:  the direction  the shadow
moves with time in the Northern hemisphere.

So you can point out  the sun's  shadow ( sorry, this will not work in the Sourhern hemisphere!).

 Children's book:   Usbourne Books  - excellent for teaching reading.
http://www.usborne.com

Adult's Book:   The Goal   by  Eliyahu Goldratt.
A business book which tells a great idea as a story. Excellent as
an idea and as a way of teaching. 
It is still excellent.  

Mood: Happy
Listening to: Bach

Gravity  - what is it? - we do not know - but we can see that most things fall to earth.

Earth is a huge rock. With hot liquid rock in the middle.
We now know by careful experiments that all things are attracted to each other.

When you spin a rock on a cord and swing it around your head  the cord keeps it from flying away.  When you let go it flies in a straight line.

The moon is another rock;  it flies around the earth - gravity is the force that keeps it from flying away.  Just like the cord.

Other Planets.

All the nearby planets fly around the sun - as the earth does.
Gravity is the force  that stops then from flying away.


Get some magnets  - this is another force - but it operates between certain materials.  For example:  iron, nickel and some other elements. Also steel.  What is an element?

Steel is iron with a little  carbon and other elements mixed in.

Get some magnets and play with them  - can you pick  up a coin with a magnet?

Does the force work through a sheet of paper, plastic, a sheet of steel?

Put an empty  plastic bottle in the freezer. What happens? Why?

Maybe you have questions? Ask them?

Next:  Swings -  where did the energy go?

Mood: Thoughtful
Listening to: Imagine John Lennon

Imagine A Billion - the first thought experiment.

Imagine you can buy a sheet of 1 million squares that is
exactly 1mm thick.
Now imagine that you got 1000 of these sheets and stacked
them on the floor.

This  cube  is  1m x 1m  x 1m = 1 cubic meter.
This cube has 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 1,000,000,000  = 1 billion tiny cubes.

Now imagine we that you have  6 and 1/2 of these cubes.

This is the population of the world, 6.5 billion.

China has a population of 1200 million (1 cube and 1/5 of a cube).
Trinidad  has 1million  -  one sheet.
The US has 285 million, 285 sheets -  about 1/4 of one cube.

Now you can think of large numbers, and see them in your mind.

The population of the UK is 70  million, 70 sheets.
The  EU has  550 million, about 1/2 a cube.

(This is a thought experiment as the 1 meter cube would cost  
thousands of dollars and take hundreds of hours to make.)

Why do thought experiments?  Because it is, I think, the finest form of
thinking. It lets you use your imagination, the key to creativity!

It also lets you learn lots of new things; imagine what it looks like from a cat's point of view.

What else can you imagine?

Next: What is Gravity?

Mood: Happy
Listening to: Cat Stevens

Many children  have problems  imagining  large numbers, say  greater than 50,000.

Here is a way to let them see, feel and understand it.

Get a package of 1mm graph paper.
 
Glue the sheets together to make a sheet 1 meter by 1 meter
 ( a little over 40 inches each side. 25.4 mm = 1 inch)
There are 1000 little squares along the bottom edge.
There are also 1000 little square along the left edge.
The total number of squares is 1000  x 1000 = 1,000,000     (1 million).

You are looking at   1 million squares.  

This makes any number 1 million or less imaginable and teachable.

You can make another sheet  to let the child   play with. Ask them to mark
or cut out 10,000 squares;
50,000 and 200,000  number of squares.
Now that the child can handle and the large number going arithmetic
will be easier.

(I am grateful that I read:

Raising Brighter Children by Sidney Ledson who had this idea.

Sidney Ledson book on teaching children to read is also excellent.)

I think that every school should have one of these 1 million square sheets.

 

Next:   Billions - a thought experiment - like Einstein.

 

When you cycled up the hill - you felt tired.
You were working hard and  storing energy.

When you free-wheeled down you used the energy you stored.

We call the energy you stored  Potential energy.  
That energy pushed you down the hill.
We call getting the energy stored in the moving trike  Kinetic Energy (Kinetic means moving.)


Next: How to teach Big Numbers  like Millions.