I realize that One has already posted on this subject, but I thought I'd compose my post before reading her conjectures. (Fun, by the way- I may predict others sometime in the future, too!)
One of my favorite movie quotes is, "Other than numbers, she's all I think about." This happens after the main character is told to give up on a girl. I can relate, although there are many, many things I may obsess about from time to time - certain song, how rude a co-worker was, a guy, etc etc... - trust me, the part of my brain that thinks about numbers is always going. I realize that numbers and math are different. I like numbers better than math. Of course math is awesome. While in school, math came very easy to me. Although I don't think that I pondered too much the reason why, I think that I've come up with an answer.
Math and my brain use similar language/processes. Hmmm... I'm not sure that really communicates what I'm trying to say, so I'll explain better. My brain constantly tries to figure out what happened and why. Whether it's about why a person reacted a certain way, or why something fell and landed a certain way, or what that noise was. One, I hope this doesn't stress you out, but my brain is kind of putting things in order constantly seeking to know what made that things happen how they happened and why. Often something will kind of confuse and later I'll hear the clue that makes it all make sense. Those are little victories for my brain. All that to say, math is all about finding solutions to problems, figuring out why things work a specific way, so my brain already does that, so math has always just clicked for me.
I enjoy math, it almost always follows a pattern, or at least there's a reason for the way things work out. That makes it way easier than all of the little "problems" that my brain constantly tries to make sense of. Sometimes if I have spare time, I'll figure out squares and cubes and higher exponents to try to make an equation to represent how they relate. Or other fun little math exercises. I often when seeing a number figure out whether or not it's divisible by three, six or nine or 11 or 37. Mostly it's just subconscious these days, it's just part of the background conversation that my brain has with itself. So I love math, it's a mental breath of fresh air.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Ones Take on Three and Four Math
Sooo, we haven't heard from Three or Four about math yet and I'm wanting something to write about so I will do my best to guess Three and Four's math perspectives. Please forgive the poetic license I am taking here.
Three, I would guess, does not spend a lot of time pondering math, although from time to time she might come upon a juicy morsel or experience that gets her thinking about it and she will delight in that bit of math trivia or puzzle, etc. She probably uses math frequently in her job and life without thinking much about it, and hence probably does math a lot more than she thinks about math. She is not one to shy away from math when the topic arises and due to the differential between the amount of time talking vs doing math, might surprise those around her when her math skills come to the forefront. Being surrounded by a number of siblings and family members who pride themselves in their math and logic skills, some of whom have gone on to specialize in math, she is more likely in a family discussion to sit back and watch any math theatre that may arise, without putting too much of her input in. That being said, if there is a math related problem to be solved, she would not hesitate to dive in and give it a go.
Four loves numbers. Numbers flow easily for her and she has systems for remembering numbers, dates, and combinations of numbers. There's something about the patterns inherent in math that appeal to her. She is very good at numbers and math and she truly enjoys them. I can't relate very much to Four when it comes to math but I admire her for it. I would like to teach my kids to see numbers more the way she does than the way I do, not as a utility but as something to be savored and explored. I might hypothesize that Four relates to math the way One relates to Food, but I'm not sure. Just an idea.
I look forward to seeing what Three and Four have to say about Math themselves. I hope I'm not too far off. Now it's Michael Weston time. Adieu.
Three, I would guess, does not spend a lot of time pondering math, although from time to time she might come upon a juicy morsel or experience that gets her thinking about it and she will delight in that bit of math trivia or puzzle, etc. She probably uses math frequently in her job and life without thinking much about it, and hence probably does math a lot more than she thinks about math. She is not one to shy away from math when the topic arises and due to the differential between the amount of time talking vs doing math, might surprise those around her when her math skills come to the forefront. Being surrounded by a number of siblings and family members who pride themselves in their math and logic skills, some of whom have gone on to specialize in math, she is more likely in a family discussion to sit back and watch any math theatre that may arise, without putting too much of her input in. That being said, if there is a math related problem to be solved, she would not hesitate to dive in and give it a go.
Four loves numbers. Numbers flow easily for her and she has systems for remembering numbers, dates, and combinations of numbers. There's something about the patterns inherent in math that appeal to her. She is very good at numbers and math and she truly enjoys them. I can't relate very much to Four when it comes to math but I admire her for it. I would like to teach my kids to see numbers more the way she does than the way I do, not as a utility but as something to be savored and explored. I might hypothesize that Four relates to math the way One relates to Food, but I'm not sure. Just an idea.
I look forward to seeing what Three and Four have to say about Math themselves. I hope I'm not too far off. Now it's Michael Weston time. Adieu.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Glad to be home...
but glad we stayed camping long enough to get relaxed and enjoy it. I'm bummed we all got rained out. We were all looking forward to having you guys come camping and fishing. ;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)