Sunday, March 12, 2017

SOLSC #12 - Coffee and Cocoa

For the fourth year, I am participating in the SOLSC and guiding students from my classroom and my school on the same writing journey. Here is the link to our school blog and the 15-20 students who are participating in the Classroom Challenge.


Coffee and Cocoa:

On our way to pick up a bale of straw for our chickens, I stopped at Starbucks for a coffee. Clara, my 6 year-old daughter was with me and of course asked for a hot chocolate. I said, "Yes," but first we had a quick chat about the effects of sugar on her behavior and potential grumpiness.

Luckily, the Drive-Thru line was long so we decided to go inside. Also lucky, the dark roast was just being brewed so we had to cool our heels and wait and began a fantastic conversation about math; and she started it. She told me to give her a math problem so I started with something like, "What's 3 x 2"? Once she came up with the answer, I asked her how she came up with it. She gave me two different ways she had done it and asked for a word problem.

"If Sally is ten and her brother is half her age, how old will he be in three years?" I was very curious what this problem would do to her and if she would be able to solve it and track her thinking. I think she has a wonderful math mind but I'm a big-kid teacher so I'm not totally up on primary grade development. Also, it seems like young minds make unexpected quantum leaps related to just about everything and I can never tell when her last one was.

So it went on like this for twenty minutes. After I asked her a few problems, she asked me a few. We sipped coffee and cocoa, watched for a Hawaii license plate out the window (the last one we are looking for this month) and solved math problems.

Since you are probably wondering, yes, she quickly solved the problem of Sally's, bother's age. I had to come up with harder questions. She's also is doing a good job of not letting sugar be the problem is sometimes is. Double-Dad-Win!

photo credit: Network Osaka Deep down inside we all love math T-shirt via photopin (license)

7 comments:

  1. Wow - how lucky is Clara to have such an engaged dad who gives her opportunities to think AND drink cocoa!! It sure beats sitting and staring at a screen while parent/child silently and separately go about their business in isolation. I also love that you are getting straw for the chickens! And Hawaii? That's going to take a while! ;-)

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  2. Oh, yeah, a six year old brain jumps ahead in January, I've found. Don't know if it's the weather, the air pressure, the age or what... but they always make big changes in January to April! Love your Starbucks time.

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  3. Love that you engaged her in learning during a daily routine. This definitely fosters a love of learning!

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  4. Wonderful dad-daughter moment. If I ever talked math with my dad, it was a lament!

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  5. I love that both of you enjoyed this time together. What a fun way for daddy-daughter bonding, over math problems. I was thinking that Linda Baie had a colleague named Max and when I clicked on your profile, I saw Logan School. So I'm thinking you used to teach with Linda. Fun connections in this world of blogging.

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  6. What a great math-inspired moment with your daughter. I loved reading this slice.

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  7. Love this! It's a great daughter-dad experience, and I love that you challenge her thinking that way. I love moments like that with my kids as well...

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