Our Basketball Star

Sometimes I think I know my kids pretty well, and then they suddenly materialize with new talents and interests I didn't know about. On my way home from work one day in Pennsylvania, I saw some kid zipping down the road on a bike near our house. I knew the neighborhood kids pretty well, since our kids played with them so often, but I couldn't tell WHO this kid was. He was wearing a shirt that looked like one of S's shirts, and he looked like he was about S's size. But it was a regular bike WITHOUT training wheels, and S had never been taught to ride one of those. I remember thinking, "If I didn't know that S can't ride a bike, I would swear that's him!" Then, as I drove slowly around the kid, I glanced over and noticed that it WAS him, zooming along on his bike like he'd been riding for years. I couldn't believe it!

Something similar happened this week. S came into the house one day and announced that he wanted me to come see him play basketball outside. He said he had made about 20 baskets on Grammy and Grampa's basketball hoop in the backyard. I had seen him TRY to make baskets out there, but he can't really get the ball up to the basket with any degree of accuracy, so this was sounding like a bit of an exaggeration. Still, I went out and watched him play, and in the few minutes that I watched, he got the ball in the hoop OVER AND OVER AND OVER. In fact, he made it in almost every time! I have absolutely no idea when he picked this talent up!

He certainly did not get it from ME!

From 2008, Summer and Fall

From 2008, Summer and Fall

Click below to see him in action, though I think his estimate of the total number of baskets he's made might be slightly inflated. One thing that is NOT inflated in this video is the ball he's using!

Abacus and the Joys of Math

It all began last year in Pennsylvania, when a little girl stumbled onto the joys of math.

"Daddy, can you give me a math problem?" became a very common question around our house, and I was often surprised that she could figure out the answers in her head. One night, I gave her the problem 8 + 9, not really knowing if she could do problems whose answers were higher than 12-ish. She answered "17" so quickly that it shocked me!

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Well," she responded. "I know that 7 + 7 = 14, and 8 is one more than 7, and 9 is two more than 7, so you take 14 and you add 1 and 2, and you get 17."

I was blown away!

Over the next few weeks and months, we continued to play "Math Games," and the numbers and problems got increasingly complex. Then we started doing algebra, though we call them "Fish Problems." They would go something like this: "If you want to buy 3 fish at the store, and they each cost $3, how much would they cost all together?" or "You have $15, and each fish costs $5. How many can you buy?"

She LOVES doing this, which is what earned her the nickname "Abacus." Imagine our delight, then, when me moved here to Utah and found an actual abacus at Grammy and Grampa's house!

From 2008, Summer and Fall

After a few lessons on how to actually use a real abacus, our Math Games turned into Math Games on Steroids. She'll do dozens of problems in a row, asking for one after another. See her in action in the video below, working on 28 + 28 + 28. (Enjoy the cameo by J.)




She's now moved on to more complex problems -- 28 + 28 + 28 is so 30 minutes ago. At this very moment, she's working on 367 + 219 + 604 -- some pretty daunting numbers. But then, she isn't a six-year-old kid anymore; she's SEVEN now!

Go, Abacus!

MOJ

Life in the Way-Too-Fast Lane

Okay, see how there are no entries from September on my blog? It's NOT because I time-warped into October, skipping September altogether (though I AM working on building a time machine, to be used principally for the purpose of allowing me to get a few extra hours of sleep at night). And it's NOT because I dropped off the face of the earth (though the truth is really, really close to that theory).

It's because I'm in law school.

'Nuff said.

Still enjoying it and learning a TON, but it feels like the workload is going to KILL ME!!! The only saving grace about the pressure is that my classmates all feel the same way, as far as I can tell. In fact, just four minutes ago, I bumped into a cluster of classmates who were comparing notes on how to get by on less sleep. I suggested that they could get all the sleep they need if they just stopped studying. They didn't find my comment very helpful; instead, they accused me of trying to sabotage them in order to inch my way to the top of the food chain. We all had a good laugh.

Hey, as long as we're developing ulcers together, we might as well enjoy it.

Aside from the whining about how busy I am, there are things I'm really enjoying about school. I've made great friends, and I'm fascinated by the cases we're studying. At dinner, I often tell the kids about some of the more interesting (or bizarre) cases I've been reading. Just a few days ago, after telling them about a 1945 case where an armchair fell out of the sky and knocked a guy out (seriously -- click HERE), R breathlessly said, "I want to be a lawyer when I grow up!"

If she does go to law school, I'll let her borrow my time machine.

MOJ