Today, David was unhappy. He said that Alan was a much better Lego builder than he, and a much better Zoob builder than he, and probably he won't ever get to be an archeologist either. If he was 46, not 6, I'd say he was having a bit of a midlife crisis.
So I tried to pick him up by telling him I noticed his latest magnet creation on his bed upstairs and had wanted to take a picture of it. Would he mind telling me what it was? I guessed a snowflake:
"No, Mommy", he said, "it's Yggdrasil!"
Yggdrasil, the world tree, picture from Thinkquest.org
Yup, I can see it. And you? And do you think our kids get an eclectic education?
You have awesome kids! :) And I'm all for eclectic educations.
Posted by: Christine | July 13, 2009 at 04:10 AM
Here's one of my stories about eclectic education from a different perspective!
Our younger son, back when he was much younger, loved to do chemistry experiments. Typically these were very simple experiments with vinegar, baking soda, rot kohl or raw red cabbage, etc. So, when I saw a place mat with the periodic table of the elements, figured he'd love it, and he did. Had great fun learning the names and symbols and quizzing his older brother. Note, he was ~7 at this time.
When he started back to school in the fall, the teacher asked each student to bring 3 things into class to use in telling the class a bit about themselves. He brought a stuff animal, his GameBoy with a Pokemon game, and his place mat with the elements. He then proceeded to tell the class about elements. His teacher attempted to translate down to a Grade 2 level, with much difficulty. It was something of an introduction to that teacher! Luckily, she was more amused and happy to be challenged than put out.
Posted by: Christine | July 13, 2009 at 05:11 PM
I watched Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, when it was broadcast on PBS twenty nine years ago. When I went into school the next day and began talking about black holes, I was sent to the principal's office by a young and ignorant kindergarden teacher. Luckily, Rabbi Goodman knew what I was talking about.
Posted by: The New York City Math Teacher | July 14, 2009 at 03:45 AM