Jordan and I filled an "All About Me" form for his class's yearbook. Dale and I changed some of the questions:
"If I were President" became "If I were a Superhero"
"When I grow up, I want to be" became "If I could have a grown-up job now, I'd like to be"
"My hero/heroine is" became "I admire"
Here are his answers:
1. What I learned in kindergarten: I learned about tally marks. That there are negative hundreds and thousands, but actually I learned that from my mom. That there is nothing over infinity. And I learned that I'm so good at making friends there.
2. If I were a superhero, I would be Superman and save the world. I would want to be solving problems and helping the world out.
3. If I could have a grown-up job now, I would like to be a piano player, because I love piano and it's really easy to do. Just play the keys.
4. Words to describe me: Human. Nice. Jewish. A boy. Joke-teller. Crazy. Runner. Talker. Blond.
5. I admire Sam Zappa, because he has lots of ideas.
notes: He seems to feel that he learned a lot of math, which I think is true, and which he seems to be pretty excited about. When he answered question 3 he had recently been playing the piano, and we had been complimenting him. He had a lot of trouble with #4. Sam Zappa is his best buddy in class.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Expertise
This morning, attempting to speak in code to Dale, I said, "Were you aware that tomorrow there will be a high-temperature midday meal?" Aaron, not missing a beat, said, "Oh, is it a hot lunch day?" Um, yes.
Jordan, meanwhile, has begun to self-identify as being Good At Math. I have to agree with him. He continues to enjoy working with negative numbers:
Jordan: Mommy, five minus ten is negative five. Right?
Rachel: Yes, that's totally right. How did you figure that out?
Jordan: Because a ten is two fives, so if you have five and you take away one five, that's zero, and then you take away another five and that's negative five.
Wow. The other day in the car we were about to get onto the freeway, and Jordan was trying to decide whether to close his window:
Jordan: How long will we be on the freeway?
Rachel: Just a few seconds. We're getting on and then right away getting off again.
Jordan: How many seconds?
Rachel: I don't know. Here, we're getting on, you want to count?
Jordan: (counts silently until we get off) Forty seconds, Mama.
Rachel: Forty seconds. That's less than a minute. Do you know how many seconds in a minute?
Jordan: No.
Rachel: Sixty. Sixty seconds in a minute.
Jordan (pausing): So we had twenty more seconds before it would be a minute.
Rachel: Wow, that's right! Tell me how you know that.
Jordan: Because if you had four seconds, you would need two more to make six seconds, and this is the same thing only it's the tens family. So if you have forty seconds you need twenty more seconds to make sixty seconds and that's a minute.
Rachel (aware of the research on praising effort rather than ability): Jordan, you know, that is really something that you know how to figure that out. I can tell that you have put a lot of effort and thoughtfulness into learning math. You must really have been practicing, and thinking about what you are doing while you are practicing, to be able to do stuff like that.
Jordan: Yes and you know what Mommy? It's because I like math. That makes it fun to do it, almost like no work at all, so I just keep doing and doing it without even minding, and that way I get a lot of practice. So I get good at it because I like it and so I practice a lot.
It's a whole theory of expertise, really, sort of a snowball theory. I went on to tell him that I thought pretty soon he would start liking reading, too (it's currently more labor than fun, for him), once he has a little more practice.
Jordan, meanwhile, has begun to self-identify as being Good At Math. I have to agree with him. He continues to enjoy working with negative numbers:
Jordan: Mommy, five minus ten is negative five. Right?
Rachel: Yes, that's totally right. How did you figure that out?
Jordan: Because a ten is two fives, so if you have five and you take away one five, that's zero, and then you take away another five and that's negative five.
Wow. The other day in the car we were about to get onto the freeway, and Jordan was trying to decide whether to close his window:
Jordan: How long will we be on the freeway?
Rachel: Just a few seconds. We're getting on and then right away getting off again.
Jordan: How many seconds?
Rachel: I don't know. Here, we're getting on, you want to count?
Jordan: (counts silently until we get off) Forty seconds, Mama.
Rachel: Forty seconds. That's less than a minute. Do you know how many seconds in a minute?
Jordan: No.
Rachel: Sixty. Sixty seconds in a minute.
Jordan (pausing): So we had twenty more seconds before it would be a minute.
Rachel: Wow, that's right! Tell me how you know that.
Jordan: Because if you had four seconds, you would need two more to make six seconds, and this is the same thing only it's the tens family. So if you have forty seconds you need twenty more seconds to make sixty seconds and that's a minute.
Rachel (aware of the research on praising effort rather than ability): Jordan, you know, that is really something that you know how to figure that out. I can tell that you have put a lot of effort and thoughtfulness into learning math. You must really have been practicing, and thinking about what you are doing while you are practicing, to be able to do stuff like that.
Jordan: Yes and you know what Mommy? It's because I like math. That makes it fun to do it, almost like no work at all, so I just keep doing and doing it without even minding, and that way I get a lot of practice. So I get good at it because I like it and so I practice a lot.
It's a whole theory of expertise, really, sort of a snowball theory. I went on to tell him that I thought pretty soon he would start liking reading, too (it's currently more labor than fun, for him), once he has a little more practice.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Jokes
Everyone's telling jokes around here. The kids are busily memorizing jokes from a Monster Riddles library book.
Aaron: What goes ha ha ha clunk?
Respondent: I don't know, what?
Aaron (shrieking with such hysteria he can hardly deliver the line): A monster laughing his head off!!
Jordan: What do you say to a two-headed monster?
Respondent: I don't know, what?
Jordan: Hi hi!
(Imagine the many variations - number of heads, occasions for greeting, etc)
Dale, meanwhile, was entertained by a coworker who was being followed around by a duck while on a walk at lunchtime. There was a long silly riff from various lab members about how she might bring the duck to work, on the bus home, etc. Dale said it was too bad she wouldn't get the chance to bring him to the lab party and introduce him with, "This is my duck, Bill."
I don't have much to contribute myself - I seem to be more of the straight man. The other night I was lying down in such a way that the corner of a nearby pillow was sticking into my eye. I said, "That is a really 3-D effect I'm getting there," and Dale said, "It's not an effect." Something about the whole Avatar world we live in made this really funny at the time.
Aaron: What goes ha ha ha clunk?
Respondent: I don't know, what?
Aaron (shrieking with such hysteria he can hardly deliver the line): A monster laughing his head off!!
Jordan: What do you say to a two-headed monster?
Respondent: I don't know, what?
Jordan: Hi hi!
(Imagine the many variations - number of heads, occasions for greeting, etc)
Dale, meanwhile, was entertained by a coworker who was being followed around by a duck while on a walk at lunchtime. There was a long silly riff from various lab members about how she might bring the duck to work, on the bus home, etc. Dale said it was too bad she wouldn't get the chance to bring him to the lab party and introduce him with, "This is my duck, Bill."
I don't have much to contribute myself - I seem to be more of the straight man. The other night I was lying down in such a way that the corner of a nearby pillow was sticking into my eye. I said, "That is a really 3-D effect I'm getting there," and Dale said, "It's not an effect." Something about the whole Avatar world we live in made this really funny at the time.
Bat house
Jordan was giving me a tour of the Wedgwood Elementary garden, in which he has a proprietary interest because his class does a lot of planting and other projects there. He especially wanted to show me the bird houses and the bat houses. (I have to write "bat house" as two words or you might be misled into thinking he was showing me a bath house.) Jordan pointed out how the bat houses are open on the bottom and have metal mesh on the back, because bats like to hang and their claws would slide off smooth wood. He also pointed out to me that the bat houses are black.
Jordan: That's because black things have more, they attract more of the sunlight so the bat house is warm. The black color brings in the power. When the house is painted black it soaks up the energy more and makes it warmer in there.
Rachel: It soaks up the energy, I totally get what you're saying. Soaks it up like a sponge.
Jordan: Right, yes, like a sponge. Except that the light is not wet.
Rachel: Right, it's not water. I meant if there could be a sponge for light.
Jordan: No actually, not a sponge. A vacuum cleaner.
Now I wonder if maybe he said "suck up the energy," not soak up.
I thought, how fascinating that he thinks the energy is actively sucked into the bat house, instead of just being better absorbed, the way I think of it. But Hunter says that energetically, both suction in a vacuum cleaner and capillary action in a sponge are active processes, with parallel entropy effects. I would have to think about that.
Also, I love how totally unproblematic it is to talk about whether the black bat house is like a sponge or like a vacuum cleaner. We think in metaphors.
Jordan: That's because black things have more, they attract more of the sunlight so the bat house is warm. The black color brings in the power. When the house is painted black it soaks up the energy more and makes it warmer in there.
Rachel: It soaks up the energy, I totally get what you're saying. Soaks it up like a sponge.
Jordan: Right, yes, like a sponge. Except that the light is not wet.
Rachel: Right, it's not water. I meant if there could be a sponge for light.
Jordan: No actually, not a sponge. A vacuum cleaner.
Now I wonder if maybe he said "suck up the energy," not soak up.
I thought, how fascinating that he thinks the energy is actively sucked into the bat house, instead of just being better absorbed, the way I think of it. But Hunter says that energetically, both suction in a vacuum cleaner and capillary action in a sponge are active processes, with parallel entropy effects. I would have to think about that.
Also, I love how totally unproblematic it is to talk about whether the black bat house is like a sponge or like a vacuum cleaner. We think in metaphors.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Mortality
While we were playing in the backyard, Aaron pointed to the giant pruning shears, about which warnings have been issued.
Aaron: That could cut my finger.
Rachel: Or your toe.
Aaron: Yeah. And then I would die.
Rachel: Or get an owie.
Aaron: We’re going to die.
Rachel: We are?
Aaron: We all are. Aaron and Mommy and Daddy and Jordan.
Rachel: But not today.
Aaron: Not today. On Thursday.
Aaron: That could cut my finger.
Rachel: Or your toe.
Aaron: Yeah. And then I would die.
Rachel: Or get an owie.
Aaron: We’re going to die.
Rachel: We are?
Aaron: We all are. Aaron and Mommy and Daddy and Jordan.
Rachel: But not today.
Aaron: Not today. On Thursday.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Compliment circle
Jordan asked that we do a compliment circle because he had something he wanted to give a compliment for. This seems to be something he does at school. He explained that you don't compliment someone's clothes or something like that, you compliment something that they did. And no, we could not do it at the breakfast table, because that was not special enough. Also it was not a circle.
So after breakfast the four of us arranged ourselves in a circle in the living room. Jordan recommended that we sit in lotus position, which for him is criss-cross-applesauce but with your spine straight and your palms on your knees. He found a ball, which you hold when it is your turn, and then you give it to the person you gave a compliment to, and then it's their turn. If you don't have any compliments, you say "Pass." Jordan's first compliment was inspired by the fact that Dale, today, is taking the car to the mechanic, picking it up at the end of the day, picking up the kids, feeding them dinner, and managing them solo while the band is practicing at our house, so that I can teach an evening class.
Dale: I have an important one. Jordan, I couldn't remember where I put your patch, and you remembered that I had put it in my shirt pocket, and I looked where you said and I found it. You were attentive and helpful. Thank you.
Jordan: You're welcome. And my compliment is, thank you Daddy for doing all the work today.
Dale: And thank you Mommy for doing most of that every other day.
Rachel: Mine is, Thank you Daddy for taking the time to understand what I meant earlier today when we were having a tough conversation.
Aaron (taking a turn): Thank you Jordan for playing fun games with me.
Jordan: Thank you Aaron for being fun to play with.
I have to say, we all felt great! Thank you Jordan for teaching us how to do a compliment circle.
So after breakfast the four of us arranged ourselves in a circle in the living room. Jordan recommended that we sit in lotus position, which for him is criss-cross-applesauce but with your spine straight and your palms on your knees. He found a ball, which you hold when it is your turn, and then you give it to the person you gave a compliment to, and then it's their turn. If you don't have any compliments, you say "Pass." Jordan's first compliment was inspired by the fact that Dale, today, is taking the car to the mechanic, picking it up at the end of the day, picking up the kids, feeding them dinner, and managing them solo while the band is practicing at our house, so that I can teach an evening class.
Dale: I have an important one. Jordan, I couldn't remember where I put your patch, and you remembered that I had put it in my shirt pocket, and I looked where you said and I found it. You were attentive and helpful. Thank you.
Jordan: You're welcome. And my compliment is, thank you Daddy for doing all the work today.
Dale: And thank you Mommy for doing most of that every other day.
Rachel: Mine is, Thank you Daddy for taking the time to understand what I meant earlier today when we were having a tough conversation.
Aaron (taking a turn): Thank you Jordan for playing fun games with me.
Jordan: Thank you Aaron for being fun to play with.
I have to say, we all felt great! Thank you Jordan for teaching us how to do a compliment circle.
Math homework
Jordan knocked me out by doing this math homework almost all independently. The thing with "6-11=-5" was especially amazing to me. He is supposed to make math sentences out of 6, 5, and 11, and after knocking out the easy ones on the addition, he went with negative numbers on the subtraction. Okay, "5-6=-1" does not strictly follow the rules, but who cares? He needed a little help figuring out what 6-11 was.
Rachel: Okay, if we start with six, (holding up six fingers)
Jordan: Then we take away one at a time up to eleven. One, two, three, four, five, six (Rachel folding down fingers)
Rachel (reaching zero, all fingers folded): What do I do now?
Jordan: Start putting them up again. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. (Rachel has five fingers up. Jordan counts) Five!! Is it negative five?!
Rachel: Totally. You got it.
I was quite impressed. Now I'm thinking about the difference between hand-counting like that, and a number line, which is the classic way to approach negative numbers. I wonder about the possible advantages of doing it on your body vs. on a graphical representation, and also I wonder about the conceptual difference between numbers-of-fingers and position along a line. Really interesting.
Reading is still slow and I think frustrating for him; he'd much rather be read to, or guess. Writing, he seems to enjoy. Asked to "write a story to tell about the fish" (bottom right), he said (and I'm translating his spelling): "2 flatfish 5 sockeyes met by the stream and played. The end."
Friday, April 9, 2010
Love and teamwork
Jordan explains: "The red lines, they give teamwork. The purple lines are the love. From top to bottom is Jordan, Daddy, Aaron, Mommy. That shows how bigger we're getting on teamwork. Mommy has the biggest teamwork, Jordan has the second biggest, Aaron has the smallest teamwork. Daddy has the biggest teamwork too but Mommy is a little bigger. That's because I made this picture for you, Mommy."
Ideas for resolving an argument
Two friends of mine are having an interpersonal difficulty. While Dale and the kids and I were all sitting around eating blueberries, I asked Jordan if he had any ideas for how to help them with their argument.
Jordan: Maybe you could help them find an agreement. They could plan something together.
Aaron (mishearing): Plant a tree. Plant a blueberry tree.
Jordan: Maybe they could talk about the same things and try to share. Mix up the plans and try to share. Use both their plans all mixed up together and not in order.
Rachel: So that the planning came out even, with part of the plan from each person?
Jordan: They could get ready to go on a fun trip together so that they could become friends again.
Aaron: They should be NICE.
Jordan: They should have some fun together.
Aaron: We are having an argument. Me and Bodhi (a classmate). Bodhi said, "Poop on you."
Jordan: Maybe you could help them find an agreement. They could plan something together.
Aaron (mishearing): Plant a tree. Plant a blueberry tree.
Jordan: Maybe they could talk about the same things and try to share. Mix up the plans and try to share. Use both their plans all mixed up together and not in order.
Rachel: So that the planning came out even, with part of the plan from each person?
Jordan: They could get ready to go on a fun trip together so that they could become friends again.
Aaron: They should be NICE.
Jordan: They should have some fun together.
Aaron: We are having an argument. Me and Bodhi (a classmate). Bodhi said, "Poop on you."
Passover (IV)
Passover at the Levinsons' was a blast! Jordan did a beautiful job with the Four Questions: he sang the Hebrew very nicely, and then he got out his cue card and asked his questions in English to the 31 assembled grownups. People were surprised... they were not expecting to actually have to answer the questions. And the answers aren't even in the Haggadah (which now seems crazy to me), so they had to actually know. Jordan waited for people to raise their hands (his wait time was excellent), called on volunteers, and affirmed correct answers. At one point he said "that's the same person" to himself and waited for someone else to volunteer. After the seder, he got many compliments. The whole point of the Four Questions - the whole point of the Seder, really - is for everyone to learn, recall, and discuss the Exodus, partly through material symbols of the experience. By prodding the adults to answer the questions, rather than just listen to the questions in song form, Jordan got us closer to the point.
Aaron's major contribution was to scream "DAYEINU!" in an ear-splittingly loud echo, just after everyone else said it. It was very funny.
They both behaved beautifully, enjoyed themselves thoroughly, ate matzah and charoset and drank juice, and lasted through the whole thing, even though it went until 10pm. It was a great time.
Aaron's major contribution was to scream "DAYEINU!" in an ear-splittingly loud echo, just after everyone else said it. It was very funny.
They both behaved beautifully, enjoyed themselves thoroughly, ate matzah and charoset and drank juice, and lasted through the whole thing, even though it went until 10pm. It was a great time.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
April Fool's Day
I have strict rules about April Fool's pranks (that I perpetrate).
1. No lying. No "Hey, there's a dragon in the backyard!" No telling the children that they are actually adopted, or are alien spawn.
2. Nothing too messy. The saran-wrap-on-the-toilet bowl thing is right out.
3. Nothing that puts other people to an obnoxious amount of trouble, like when you tell your husband that a Mr. Bayer called for him and give him the callback number for the zoo, and the poor people at the zoo have to answer that stupid phone call about 5000 times.
This leaves plenty of room for entertainment. This morning I dyed the milk blue. I also put scotch tape over the bathroom faucet, and cinched down the sprayer handle on the kitchen sink with a rubber band, hoping to spray Dale not once but twice. Sadly, both arrangements were technically imperfect and the water just spluttered instead of spraying. It still made him laugh, though. He had not realized what day it was.
How did I not suspect what he would be up to while I was in the shower? I tried to open my laptop and something seemed to be very wrong with the latch, but no, it was ... taped shut. Perhaps with the tape from the bathroom faucet. When putting said laptop in my bookbag I found it was already full of Harry Potter volumes. And when I went to put my boots on, they had underwear in them. Jordan especially liked that one.
We collaborated on the kids' lunches: each got a small tupperware container full of sock. (That's in addition to the food, not instead of it.)
1. No lying. No "Hey, there's a dragon in the backyard!" No telling the children that they are actually adopted, or are alien spawn.
2. Nothing too messy. The saran-wrap-on-the-toilet bowl thing is right out.
3. Nothing that puts other people to an obnoxious amount of trouble, like when you tell your husband that a Mr. Bayer called for him and give him the callback number for the zoo, and the poor people at the zoo have to answer that stupid phone call about 5000 times.
This leaves plenty of room for entertainment. This morning I dyed the milk blue. I also put scotch tape over the bathroom faucet, and cinched down the sprayer handle on the kitchen sink with a rubber band, hoping to spray Dale not once but twice. Sadly, both arrangements were technically imperfect and the water just spluttered instead of spraying. It still made him laugh, though. He had not realized what day it was.
How did I not suspect what he would be up to while I was in the shower? I tried to open my laptop and something seemed to be very wrong with the latch, but no, it was ... taped shut. Perhaps with the tape from the bathroom faucet. When putting said laptop in my bookbag I found it was already full of Harry Potter volumes. And when I went to put my boots on, they had underwear in them. Jordan especially liked that one.
We collaborated on the kids' lunches: each got a small tupperware container full of sock. (That's in addition to the food, not instead of it.)
Passover (III)
Tonight was the night of the Four Questions. It's Jordan's job to ask them (as the youngest one who can pull it off), and he's very pleased to be able to sing in Hebrew. For the English, he made himself a "cheat sheet."
Since the questions are all "why" questions, he drew the participant shrugging dramatically in each picture. Click on the image to enlarge it.
For those of you who are not Passover-savvy, here is a key.
1. On all other nights we eat either bread or matzah. Why on this night do we eat only matzah?
2. On all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables. Why on this night do we especially eat bitter herbs?
3. On all other nights we do not dip herbs even once. Why on this night do we dip them two times? (Note the number 2, and the arrows for the dipping.)
4. On all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining. Why on this night do we eat reclining? (You can tell the participant is slouching because he can barely see over the table. And he has a soft pillow on his seat.)
Jordan recognized these as "known information" questions: he knows he is not asking them to find out the answers, because he knows the answers. Thus, he has concluded, he is asking them in order to test the rest of us, "like a teacher." Here's how it went tonight:
Jordan: Everyone, please be quiet now.
[Rachel and Dale and Aaron, reclining in the playroom tent, are as still as statues.]
Jordan: Why do we only eat matzah on this night?
[Dale raises his hand.]
Jordan: Daddy?
Dale: Because when we escaped from Egypt we were in a big rush and we didn't have time for the bread to rise.
Jordan: Right!
And so on. I am fondly hoping that he repeats this performance at the big family seder on Saturday in San Francisco.
Since the questions are all "why" questions, he drew the participant shrugging dramatically in each picture. Click on the image to enlarge it.
For those of you who are not Passover-savvy, here is a key.
1. On all other nights we eat either bread or matzah. Why on this night do we eat only matzah?
2. On all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables. Why on this night do we especially eat bitter herbs?
3. On all other nights we do not dip herbs even once. Why on this night do we dip them two times? (Note the number 2, and the arrows for the dipping.)
4. On all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining. Why on this night do we eat reclining? (You can tell the participant is slouching because he can barely see over the table. And he has a soft pillow on his seat.)
Jordan recognized these as "known information" questions: he knows he is not asking them to find out the answers, because he knows the answers. Thus, he has concluded, he is asking them in order to test the rest of us, "like a teacher." Here's how it went tonight:
Jordan: Everyone, please be quiet now.
[Rachel and Dale and Aaron, reclining in the playroom tent, are as still as statues.]
Jordan: Why do we only eat matzah on this night?
[Dale raises his hand.]
Jordan: Daddy?
Dale: Because when we escaped from Egypt we were in a big rush and we didn't have time for the bread to rise.
Jordan: Right!
And so on. I am fondly hoping that he repeats this performance at the big family seder on Saturday in San Francisco.
Epistemology
Jordan built a pyramid out of yellow legos. When I realized his pyramid was part of his imaginative Passover storytelling, I told him that I was pretty sure the Israelites did not build the Egyptian pyramids. (I read that somewhere.) Jordan: No, Mommy, they did. Trust me. I know it.
Rachel: How do you know it?
Jordan: I saw a picture.
[He shows me the Passover placemat he got at religious school.]
Rachel: What if I say the picture is a mistake? How would we decide who is right?
[He looks at me blankly.]
Rachel: What if I say "No, that picture is not right, the people who drew it didn't know, and I know, and the Israelites did not build the pyramids." How could we decide who is right?
[Long pause.]
Jordan: The picture is right.
Rachel: Anytime Mommy says one thing and a picture says another thing, the picture is right?
Jordan: Yes.
Rachel: Why?
Jordan: Because they would have done a test before they drew it.
I'm not sure what he meant by a test, but I took him to be saying that printed pictures are officially sanctioned documents, and thus have been vetted in some way. Which is not unreasonable. Although it is undermined somewhat by the fact that the placemat has spelling errors on it.
In case you are interested in the content of the discussion and not only the views of knowledge implied therein: Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, says that ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, not foreign slaves:
"The scenario of whip-driven slaves received support from the biblical account of Moses and the Exodus and the first-century A.D. historian Josephus. In our era, Cecil B. de Mille's galvanizing screen images reinforced this popular misconception. The pyramid builders were not slaves but peasants conscripted on a rotating part-time basis, working under the supervision of skilled artisans and craftsmen who not only built the pyramid complexes for the kings and nobility, but also designed and constructed their own, more modest tombs."
In case you don't want to take my (or his) word for it, scholarly research is referenced on Hawass's page. (And I will add that I don't think the Bible mentions the pyramids at all, with regard to the Hebrew slaves' work - just Pithom and Ramses, the treasure cities of those pharaohs.)
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