Spy Car signature..

[SunshineMom]

I like you signature and tried to solve for it. Yes the equation would be correct if each box was counted from left to right with quantities of 4,3 and 2, 1 in one long string of numbers, so the first two boxes would be 40010321 and the second would be 03214001. +,-,X both boxes would be equal to each other. Do not know if I solved this problem "correctly" but I made it worked out in my own way. Not a math whiz but this was fun!

[Spy Car]

Wow, got you thinking :D

 

I'm going to cut and paste from another thread. This is a Mini-computer and is part of a very interesting alternative (and free) math program called CSMP that we've been playing around with:

 

 

"The "values" of the sub-squares [my term] are color coded (and match Cuisenaire Rods) Brown 8, Purple 4, Red 2, and White 1. If a sub-square has a "checker" it counts toward the value of the total square. Each full square represents a "place value" read in the standard fashion from left to right."

 

 

Bill

[Amber in AUS]

So is it -

 

97>79 ??

 

Can you link the program please.

[Spy Car]

So is it -

 

97>79 ??

 

Can you link the program please.

 

Yes that's right :001_smile:

 

Here is a link.

 

http://ceure.buffalostate.edu/~csmp/

 

The amount of materials is almost overwhelming, and I've only begun to scratch the surface. But it's another fun, and "different" way to teaching math.

 

Enjoy

[Amber in AUS]

Thanks Bill. Will check it out. We love math stuff too :D

[sarahli]

And if more than one dot within each color multiplies the value of the square, then this would make your avatar very, very old. :D

[Amber in AUS]

That link looks excellent Bill. Thanks for sharing, what other gems are you not telling us about?

[Spy Car]

That link looks excellent Bill. Thanks for sharing, what other gems are you not telling us about?

 

I think I've spilled all my good ideas (except for the most excellent resource, Bengali Math which I'm keeping to myself, as my son needs some advantage :D)

 

Bill

[Amber in AUS]

Thanks Bill :D

[oliveview]

Bill, what is it that you like about the CSMP program? I browsed it this morning and was struck by the introduction of the calculator in the K level. I thought the storybooks were a nice idea and I love that they go all the way thorugh 6th grade. How are you incorporating this into your math at home?

[Spy Car]

Bill, what is it that you like about the CSMP program? I browsed it this morning and was struck by the introduction of the calculator in the K level. I thought the storybooks were a nice idea and I love that they go all the way thorugh 6th grade. How are you incorporating this into your math at home?

 

Well I've only barely scratched the surface. But we've run into interesting things with sets (this seems a big strength), and the the arrow game were you do "inequalities" by drawing arrows, and the one-to-one correspondence pages were good.

 

I skipped the K level. But did see some mention of calculators. Am I wrong, or do they suggest these for discovery/play and not calculation? I know, "gateway" drug. I pretty much feel that way myself.

 

Bill

Edited May 7, 2009 by Spy Car

[oliveview]

Again, I just scanned through the first couple of levels this morning. I will give it a closer look. They have a section on calculators in each of the levels that I looked at. I'm willing to look past such a thing and not "throw the baby out with the bath water". It just suprised me to see it there. I think there may be some good ideas for us in there also.

 

Now please...stop sending more great math programs out for me to look at! Please! :lol:

[Storm Bay]

My 11 yo does CMSP math just for fun. I like it, but prefer MEP, which I'm doing with my 8 yo. He's so verbal it would drive me nuts to teach him the mini computer right now, but dd is vs, so it was nothing for her to learn it. But ds will do some CSMP math sometime.

 

My favourite math book right now is Russian Math that my 11 yo is doing, but I'm going to check out this Bengali Math. I don't know if I'll add it, as I hope to get Japanese Math 7 for dd to do next year. She can do that along with Life of Fred Algebra. When she's done those, she can do Gelfand's & Dolciani Algebra. I just wish I'd had more of these things when my eldest was younger because she probably wouldn't have hated math. She hated SM & Saxon, but Saxon less, which is really weird to me, personally, since she's obviously gifted in math (how else did a girl who loathed math with a passion but learned it by reading the textbook & doing less than half the problems get to Algebra by 11????)

[Spy Car]

.....but I'm going to check out this Bengali Math.

 

Oh you are going to love Bengali Math. Here's a sample:

 

I'm finding using unrecognizable glyphs as a numeration system is really promoting "out of the box" thinking.

 

And the fact that the workbooks and HIGs are written in "Western Bengali" (rather than the notoriously difficult "Eastern Bengali" :banghead:) is a god-send. Sure it's a little more effort. But aren't our kids worth it? :D

 

Bill

[Storm Bay]

Oh you are going to love Bengali Math. Here's a sample:

 

I'm finding using unrecognizable glyphs as a numeration system is really promoting "out of the box" thinking.

 

And the fact that the workbooks and HIGs are written in "Western Bengali" (rather than the notoriously difficult "Eastern Bengali" :banghead:) is a god-send. Sure it's a little more effort. But aren't our kids worth it? :D

 

Bill

 

 

Hold the phone here--do I need to speak Bengali to do this? Or can I just look at it and figure out what's going on? I do not have time to learn Bengali. Or is that what you meant--taking the time to figure it out without reading Bengali? Do you have a link for this?

[Spy Car]

Hold the phone here--do I need to speak Bengali to do this? Or can I just look at it and figure out what's going on? I do not have time to learn Bengali. Or is that what you meant--taking the time to figure it out without reading Bengali? Do you have a link for this?

 

No, you don't need to be able to speak Bengali. You only need to be able to "read" and translate Bengali. Speaking it?....wheew , that's hard!

 

And it's "Western Bengali". Trust me it's much easier than learning "Eastern Bengali" (who'd take that on???). Yea, I mean, learning Bengali takes a little time and effort, sure.

 

But if you thought "Hungarian Math' looked foreign....you ain't seen 'nuthing yet :D

 

Bill

Edited May 7, 2009 by Spy Car

[Amber in AUS]

And the link is coming isn't it Bill :D

Couldn't find much when i googled.

[Spy Car]

And the link is coming isn't it Bill :D

Couldn't find much when i googled.

 

Sad to say their web-servers have been out since the last typhoon. The connection was always spotty in any case.

 

The only way to order materials at the moment is by snail-mail (which can also be irregular since the insurgency has intensified). But the materials are dirt cheap (although you will have to send Indian Rupees, and they will "grudgingly" take Bangladeshi "Takas").

 

The good news is the proprietor, Gajenranath Madhusudan Ghoshmaulik (everyone calls him "Manny") could not be nicer. But English is not his strong suit.

 

I would suggest ordering "Western Bengali for Beginners" along with the math books as they can be pretty daunting unaided.

 

I hope this helps :D

 

Bill

Edited May 7, 2009 by Spy Car

[stripe]

Alternatively, you could contact Munir Hasan, secretary of the Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad Committee.

 

Or, if you track down Parker and Baldridge, they have a section on ancient Egyptian numerals in chapter 1.

[Spy Car]

Alternatively, you could contact Munir Hasan, secretary of the Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad Committee.

 

Or, if you track down Parker and Baldridge, they have a section on ancient Egyptian numerals in chapter 1.

 

You know Munir???

 

I'm impressed :D

 

Bill

Edited May 8, 2009 by Spy Car

[stripe]

No, but his name is sure a lot easier to pronounce, isn't it?

[Spy Car]

Sure, but Munir is from Bangladesh (and speaks Eastern Bengali) while Gajenranath Madhusudan Ghoshmaulik (Manny) is from Indian Bengal.

 

Or better said, Manny's Institute is on ground claimed by both India and Bangladesh, and the guerrilla insurgency lately has made mail service less than fully reliable.

 

And what do they ship these materials along with? You can't say they smell bad, but they do have a distinct aroma that lingers no matter what.

 

I've actually been hoping that the olfactory stimulation we get when using these materials will help burn the experience of using them into a complex matrix of memory. Suffice it to say, there is never any question that you know you're doing Bengali Math, when you're doing Bengali Math.

 

Bill

[stripe]

I am not sure what all this is about, but who said my house doesn't have a Bengali odor already? A pinch of asafoetida would do wonders for your digestion, you know.

 

Perhaps it's time to start reading Proust with your little one (eat a madeleine along with it at snack time) -- alternatively you could do the 1984/boiled cabbage thing but I think the former is preferable -- to expand your academic repertoire beyond math.

[nmoira]

 

Perhaps it's time to start reading Proust with your little one (eat a madeleine along with it at snack time)

Noooooooo! Fifty or a hundred pages of raw agony over the remembrance of being abandoned by one's mother at bedtime might prove psychologically debilitating. I vote Dostoevsky or Gogol -- much less traumatic. ;) Edited May 8, 2009 by nmoira
a bit redudant

[stripe]

Well, at least eat the madeleine! Save the "remembrances" for times not yet passed.

[Spy Car]

I am not sure what all this is about, but who said my house doesn't have a Bengali odor already? A pinch of asafoetida would do wonders for your digestion, you know.

 

Perhaps it's time to start reading Proust with your little one (eat a madeleine along with it at snack time) -- alternatively you could do the 1984/boiled cabbage thing but I think the former is preferable -- to expand your academic repertoire beyond math.

 

Are you pulling my leg?

 

I was going to say that it carried the odor of "Asafoetida" but I didn't think anyone would know what I was talking about. The Hindi term is Heeng or Hing, but the Western Bengali expression is so funny as it translates (roughly, I'm no expert) as "the defecation of the devil" :D

 

A literal translation might be actually be a little more "earthy".

 

Do you know I read 1984 so many times in Junior High I practically memorized the thing?

 

And Proust? I've read the first few chapters of "Swans Way" at least a dozen times, but somehow always drift into pleasant dreams and never finish the thing.

 

And madeleines! For years we've serving them to Spylet at significant moments. I really believe in this embedded memory thing. I think I stoled that ideas from Proust. But I forget.

 

Bill

Edited May 8, 2009 by Spy Car

[Spy Car]

Noooooooo! Fifty or a hundred pages of raw agony devoted to the agony being abandoned by one's mother at bedtime might prove psychologically debilitating. I vote Dostoevsky or Gogol -- much less traumatic. ;)

 

I've mapped out our first "Russian Cycle" for 2nd Grade.

 

Naturally we'll stick to some of the shorter works.

 

Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky (which is much funnier than people give it credit for). There is a debate whether we read Gogol's Dead Souls this cycle (or the next) and substitute Diary of a Madman.

 

The wife put her foot down and said I did have to hold on "The Master and Margarita". So I filled the slot with Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. So that, and Alexander Solzenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich should take car of that round (we dont want to "over-do").

 

Bill (who can't wait till 3rd Grade and the "Germans")

Edited May 8, 2009 by Spy Car

[Storm Bay]

No, you don't need to be able to speak Bengali. You only need to be able to "read" and translate Bengali. Speaking it?....wheew , that's hard!

 

And it's "Western Bengali". Trust me it's much easier than learning "Eastern Bengali" (who'd take that on???). Yea, I mean, learning Bengali takes a little time and effort, sure.

 

But if you thought "Hungarian Math' looked foreign....you ain't seen 'nuthing yet :D

 

Bill

 

 

Here's the thing--I haven't seen Hungarian Math. If I feel the need to add something besides SM, MEP, CSMP, Russian math (at certain points) & Japanese Math (for gr 7) and I really want to translate from some foreign tongue, I'll look for an Icelandic math text. They're always ignored because their population is so small, but I'm going to ask a few knowledgeable relatives (one spent 3 years in Iceland on a scholarship) and see how well those ignored Icelanders fare in the mathematical world. :D

 

And if you like history, along with math & logic, Bill, you ought to include Snorri Sturluson in there somewhere, as he pioneered writing history by doing research, albeit not by modern standards. He also wrote a textbook that was used for about 500 years. He's considered one of the two greatest historians of the middle ages.

 

I, of course, am not at all biased by the fact that I'm genetically half Icelandic.

[Spy Car]

Here's the thing--I haven't seen Hungarian Math.

 

By "Hungarian Math" I was referring to MEP. Thank goodness we didn't have to learn Hungarian to use it. There are limits after all :D

 

If I feel the need to add something besides SM, MEP, CSMP, Russian math (at certain points) & Japanese Math (for gr 7) and I really want to translate from some foreign tongue, I'll look for an Icelandic math text.

 

 

Hmm Icelandic? It does give me something to think about.

 

Do you think Icelandic would help with reading Beowulf? I'm finding "Old English" much more difficult than I ever anticipated.

 

I, of course, am not at all biased by the fact that I'm genetically half Icelandic.

 

I have to admit I've never even heard of Snorri Sturluson. The things I don't know!

 

Bill

[stripe]

Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky (which is much funnier than people give it credit for).

I am with you on that one.

 

Asafoetida does not smell bad, just distinctive. The "fetid" (or...foetid) thing is extreme. But I question the assertion that books from the Indian subcontinent permanently reek of it. (I, for example, inadvertently perfumed my luggage by buying a small container of it rather far from my departure date. The scent has since moved on.)

[Spy Car]

I am with you on that one.

 

Asafoetida does not smell bad, just distinctive. The "fetid" (or...foetid) thing is extreme. But I question the assertion that books from the Indian subcontinent permanently reek of it. (I, for example, inadvertently perfumed my luggage by buying a small container of it rather far from my departure date. The scent has since moved on.)

 

I'm not saying all books from the sub-continent. Just these.

 

They do have to pack these out on water-buffalo since the typhoons have washed out the roads and they have to avoid insurgents. So the materials get packed in with all sorts of stuff. It smells like a mix of sandal-wood, camphor, clove, lime, devil's dung, and cumin. Not altogether unpleasant :D

 

Let's say our consumption of "Indian food" has gone up, not down.

 

And it was kind of funny the other day I threw a little too much asafoetida (devil's dung) into some hot oil, and THE SMELL! OMG!!!

 

And then I hear this little voice calling out from the other side of the house:

 

Daddy, are we going to do Bengali Math?

 

Bill

Edited May 8, 2009 by Spy Car

[Spy Car]

I did forget to mention that in the appendix of the afore-mentioned "Western Bengali for Beginners" book, there is a wonderful selection of Bengali recipes to help get one in the spirit of things.

 

Once you figure out the Bengali, there is one small remaining obstacle to overcome, as they've used traditional systems of time and measurement that take a little getting used to.

 

For example it might say something like, stir for 8 "paramaanus".

 

And you have to know that a "paramanu" means "a blink of the eye". But they blink rather slowly, so I've found about 3.8 seconds per "paramaanu" (note the final vowel length changes in plural forms of nouns of the "first declension") works out pretty well.

 

A "ghadiya" is 60 "vighatis" which in turn are 6 "paramaanus" each. The measurement of "time" sounds more complicated than it really is.

 

The same can not be said of "weight and volumes" as they are really complicated. Be prepared to put on your "thinking cap". :lol:

 

But wow, one you figure it all out...Bengali food is so good!!!

 

Bill

Edited May 8, 2009 by Spy Car

[Storm Bay]

By "Hungarian Math" I was referring to MEP. Thank goodness we didn't have to learn Hungarian to use it. There are limits after all :D

 

 

 

Hmm Icelandic? It does give me something to think about.

 

Do you think Icelandic would help with reading Beowulf? I'm finding "Old English" much more difficult than I ever anticipated.

 

 

 

I have to admit I've never even heard of Snorri Sturluson. The things I don't know!

 

Bill

 

 

Good. MEP really isn't hard to get used to. I like it better than those minicomputers you're so fond of (as are my dc, btw) and those little weird roofs on those "magic" numbers. But CSMP is just for fun, apparently.

 

I have no idea if Icelandic would help with Beowulf, which I've never read. I do know that it is completely phonetic, and very similar to what Norse was like 1000 years ago. But Iceland was apparently founded by a group of intellectuals.

 

And the lack of knowledge of Snorri Sturluson in NA is terrible--after all, haven't most people heard of that Greek fellow who is the other great historian of the middle ages? What was his name again? (seriously, I've forgotten).

 

As for Snorri, he was brilliant. He was the law speaker a number of times; this meant he not only had the entire Icelandic law committed to memory, but he acted as a mediator for disputes at the Allthing. He wrote Heimskringla (sp) which is a history of the world & also was the book that prevented Norse mythology from disappearing forever. He wrote a book on skaldic poetry that was that textbook I mentioned. He was highly controversial, and not exactly a simple guy to understand. He also broke into new territory in Iceland by writing his big works in Icelandic/Norse instead of in Latin, although he knew Latin. Plus, as I mentioned, he pioneered doing research before writing history, even though we'd hardly consider it done by modern standards as there are legendary things in his work. I haven't read the whole. I'll bet that if you go to your library network you'll find books by him in your system as I did and I'm not in a large city. Also books about him.

 

I do have a big heart for these neglected but important people since I grew up in Canada & the same thing happens to Canadians (even in Canada, often.)

Edited May 9, 2009 by Karin
why is it roofs if it rhymes with hooves?