Thankful for Kids' Math Interests

If I had to design a mechanism

To destroy a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern making…

I couldn’t possibly do as good a job

As the contemporary math curriculum.

This is a slight modification of a quote from “A Mathematician’s Lament”

(Perhaps my favorite math-related prose of all time!).

It does a fantastic job of building analogies that we can understand

By using art and music.

But the key is that for a society of people who “are not math people,”

We have an awfully deep love of puzzles and pattern-making.

Not to mention problem solving.

Seeing this in my kids is delightful.

Asking them little probing questions…

Seeing how their mind sets to the task of figuring it out…

And watching the patterns get matched.

Watching the problems get solved.

I am thankful for my kids’ math instincts and math interests.

It doesn’t always show up in “math class…”

But it does show up in life. And I do my best to call attention to it.

To quote Lockhart again:

Math is wondering. Playing.

Amusing yourself with your imagination.

Children are experts 😄

Is math fun in your household!?

What about thinking? Riddles? Problem-solving?

Puzzles? Pattern-making?

Together we can resolve the modern world’s revulsion towards math!!