While this is a rare occasion, sometimes we get to even build a snowman that lasts for a day or so, this will be our third day of snow. I'm still trying to decide how much I like it. It is beautiful, as it warms up here, then we live in mud until it gets colder or dryer. I do like this better than rain in the cold wind as we have had a while ago.
Our call today was so wonderful! I enjoyed hearing about how each Homeschool group is doing, how the scholars are enjoying their project, and what challenges they are experiencing. They are loving the experiments and class activities, but how do you get them to want to do their math?
To want something, you have to have a reason. You must experience the WHY factor. Helping to find that why is the challenge. What is their why? What is your why? Why do you want to do math? What inspires you to do the hard work? How do we find the why? Just as each scholar has individual needs, they also have individual values, those desires and things that matter most. What interests your scholar? As you build a relationship with them, you begin to find those little sparks of interests. It might be that your scholar is a BMX rider, an ice skater, animal lover, a digger, a builder, a thinker, or a day dreamer. Find out. What sparks their interest and what kind of math can you find to show them about it? Certainly math is divinely instituted in everything that exists, their are physics, equations, patterns, and lines of logic to be found in everything we have interest in. Let's find it and share our enthusiasm for the math that they are already interested in. How do we write an equations for it? How do we measure it? How do we mathematically communicate it? If they like something, find an exciting math reason to like it and share it! It's right there.
If you don't see the results now, you are building connections for later. My daughter hated math (past tense). She took Pyramid Project. I was her mentor. She struggled to find her why. She found her why three years later when she was in her first year at George Wythe University. She made connections from her intense philosophical study of Aristotle and Galileo with her memories of Carry On Mr. Bowditch. Those connections inspired her to study the math language more, and find the patterns in the equations. Building on those connections showed her a path she had never seen before. It was always there, she just needed a reason to connect with it. Once she found the connections there was no stopping her! She worked on the Newtoinian Math and posted her favorite equations on Facebook. It was so fun to see her enthusiasm. She just needed to find that connection and the spark happened.
Be a builder. Build with enthusiasm. Be a connector and share the sparks. Have fun, show that you're having fun and it will be contagious. Love the kids you mentor, find their interest, and be enthusiastic about them and what they love and the math will be there, it already exists.
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