The Energy of Numbers

We have started the numbers and what fun is in store. Technically HA is in 1st grade and we use the Enki Curriculum with some Waldorf Influence. There is also some Unschooled Influence in our day ( I am often lead in the in the direction of the children and their needs, but have a steady rhythm to the day). It has been difficult keeping our daily rhythm with having our home on the the market. This shall pass. I constantly remind myself that daily home life, whether it be mud making, bug hunting, weed pulling or clothes folding, is what our children should mostly experience right now in their stages of life. I feel it is counter productive to drag HE to do her morning lesson when the three of them have their hammers, nails, saw, wood and glue strewn all over the basement floor trying to form a boat. The lesson can wait until the afternoon when the boys are napping. I make the choice to "Respond" or "React" to these spontaneous activities thus dictating the quality of our children's home education.

I found myself avoiding and procrastinating entering the math block...why I wondered? I dreaded starting math - boring, boring, boring and I was terrible at it in school. Well after starting the introduction to numbers what new light it shined into my life. I am excited to share this enthusiasm with HA.

Math is all around us; not just in written form but in nature, color, rhythm, story and the list goes on. Mathematical equations hold the order of the universe. Are mathematical equations nothing but energy waiting to be expressed. Albert Einstein concluded that energy is matter. Is it not the nature of the human mind to place the unknown/unseen into form - into physical expression so the human mind may comprehend. This math block has my wheels turning. Just a note, HA and I have not had this discussion...yet :)

This week we have covered the numbers 0,1,2,3, 4 and 5. What fun it has been finding the aspects of the number in nature and life. On our walk today, much time was spent collecting leaves, counting the lobes of leaves and needles of pines and spruces.

I introduced the numbers through story and art. The first day I read a fairy tale with qualities of the number present. The story is in text form(without pictures) allowing HA to imagine her own characters and to sink deep into the symbols. HA then slept on it over night. The next day we discussed where we see the number and draw a picture of something that symbolizes the number usually referencing an object in the fairy tale. On a separate page, we wrote the number in crayon, identified its quantity with dots and wrote the numerical word on the page. Note that I draw and HE follows along/copies what I do. We also worked with the geometric shapes for the first 5 numbers.

To follow are the objects we came up with to characterize the numbers.

o - infinity. We did not do a picture for zero. But drew the number zero (a circle). HA did not understand the concept of zero or nothing at first; that is she did not understand my concept of zero. We took out a pouch of stones and HA made a circle on the table. A specific quantity of stones were placed inside the circle. When asked the quantity of stones in the circle she counted zero as one, so instead of 5 stones she counted 6 stones. She took stones stones away until there were zero stones in the circle. This is when the light bulb went off with a generous grin on her face.

1 - nose, HA, horse tail, one sun, one moon in the night time sky, we have one dog, turtle and golf cart, one mother, one father, one God or Divine Spirit . We drew a sun.

2 - eyes, ears, legs, hands, parents, Grammy and Pop, Grandpa and Grandma, two brothers, two boobies, nostrils, two lines- two lines crossed makes a cross, two cats and two crabs, two lines make a trunk of a tree, twins. We traced our two hands and two feet on the picture and colored around them.

3 - this was a bit more difficult. Poison Ivy leaf. Maple and Sassafras sometimes have 3 lobes to their leaf. Father, Mother and Child. Momma Mary, Daddy Joseph and Baby Jesus. The trinity. In landscape design often plant in 3's or odd numbers which is more natural in nature. We drew a poison ivy leaf.

4 - 4 sides of a house, cross, animals four legs, square and diamond. We drew a kite with 4 sides.

5 - 5 pointed star, five fingers per hand and foot. 5 petaled flower. 5 paws. The Sweet Gum Tree has 5 lobes - it is shaped like a star and today on our walk it blessed us with its brilliant colors of goldenrod and scarlet. We drew a 5 petaled Lily pad an object in the native American story, The Star Maiden.

I hope to imprint upon HA the colorful and fun side of mathematics.