Count to a million!

No, not really..Its the title of a book by Jerry Pallotta, illustrated by Rob Bolster.

We do number crunching almost every day with our kids but have they really seen a million? or a ten thousand? In this I'll show you how you can do this.
 

 This book begins, "If you can count to ten, you can count to one million."

Although many teachers will not agree with the introduction of base ten system in this book but I found it so intrigue and interesting and well ... unique. I believe out of curiosity and thanks to big colorful pictures, kids will read on till the end.

 A "ten" is shown here as grain of sand that have been magnified.

A yellow gum attracted "one thousand" ants and I was wondering if there are actually a thousand ants drawn here.

Now this is some thing we don't see here in Pakistan! "ten thousand" people in a marathon!
We can make our younger kids believe that people with colorful flags in a political rally they see on TV (or a "dharna" for that matter) are actually in a "marathon" and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to see that many people "running".

Here "one hundred thousand" people are enjoying sport at a stadium. We had PSL 2018 final on March 25 at National Stadium, Karachi but its capacity was only 34,000 people.

Again grains of sands in a bucket are a "one million".

The book ends beautifully by narrating "This book started with one Earth, the planet we live on. There is only one Earth ...but look up in the sky on a clear night. There are millions of stars. Now you can count to million, and perhaps beyond..."

This book tells you what a 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, and a 1.000,000 look like. It is out of print book and I got it from Old Books vendors in Karachi.

COUNT TO A MILLION sure inspired me to have a unique way of looking at exponents of 10. Next time I'm teaching Base Ten Number System, this book will be my teaching resource! 

Tell me what you think about this book. Post and share to let other math lovers know about this blog. 


You can check out my Facebook page about Math workshops for parents, teachers and kids here.

Consider these mind boggling facts of human anatomy.

A human skeleton has 206 bones!

There are 32 teeth in an adult human mouth 8 Incisors, The middlemost four teeth on the upper and lower jaws. 4 Canines, the pointed teeth just outside the incisors and Premolar....

Wait! don't tell me.... this is what our children learn in science class!. Thank God we passed our science class years back...phew! 

Our kids are sure lucky they have teachers that make science fun and not just plain text to memorize.

Dr. Mehreen Raza Khan (ex-lecturer Dow Medical College) is on a mission to make study of human body fun. She shares her passion for science by bringing it to life.

Dr Mehreen Raza Khan giving lecture on First Aid

Her classes of human body systems are no less than an arts and crafts class where students work with crayons, poster paint and colored sticker papers.

Interactive "respiratory system" class

She is a homeschooling mother of 4 children. Her workshops of human anatomy and first Aid are for 7 to 12 yo kids but they are also open to mothers too so they know what and how  their kids are  learning.

Her classes cover the national curriculum standard of science from grade 1 to 8.
 

A student solving human skeleton System Worksheet after the activity.

Very creative way of showing urinary system.Kidneys as plastic bottles

Right now registration to her Summer Camp is open at two different venues.
The details of which can be found on her Facebook page.

Do leave a comment below and share the post to let parents know about this one of a kind science class.

You can check out my Facebook page about Math workshops for parents, teachers and kids here.

The case of the broken Watch

Logical thinking: we're making progress!

"I'm gonna be playing with Alyan and be home by 08:30 pm", my 8-year old told me when he rushed  to play with his Lego leaguer next door holding his lego box.

"Wait, 8:30 pm? Aren't you supposed to return by 8:00 pm? That's what we agreed?", I asked as I held my almost two year old boy, Aariz, following Talha my 8yo who was now out of the door.

"I will return at 8 mama"

"You said 8:30"

"Ji ji 8:30 but it will be 8:00 actually", he said while the climbed a few stairs of the building.

"Talhaaa come back and talk to me about rules".

I was now at the door and anticipating a long discussion where I will AGAIN tell him how once we set the time, we aren't supposed to change it and how it makes me worry we aren't making any progress in setting our time table. And besides, 8:30 is an absurd time to play for an 8yo, he should be in his pajamas by now but I gave him this leniency as his buddy Alyan is the ONLY kid in the block who will play with Legos the way Talha wanted.... strictly construction only and no fighting! (mostly on who will own the new constructed model).

"My watch is broken and its showing 7:30 while it is actually 7:00 so I will be home by 8:30 which is 8:00"

"Oh Ok"

Pleased with the progress we were making in setting our time table I closed the door and smiled.

Wait, I rewind what he just said to me and thought, "what logical thinking that was!"

He was comparing the actual time with the time of the broken watch his Dado (my mother in-law) gave him.

I was kind of happy. We are ALSO making progress in logical thinking. I prided my self with the idea.

Suddenly I realized that's the SECOND watch he has broken this month. I assumed it's the result of the tinkering he's been up to these days.

OK! we are nowhere near in explaining the importance of taking care of our belongings. I thought as my new sense of pride vanished.

"We are", my more logical brain told me and I sat with Aariz playing with the OTHER dead watch which won't show any time but was blinking and made Aariz laugh, he took that in his hands and jumped happily.

I planted a kiss on his cheeks as he amused himself with his new found blinking toy.

I guess yes, we are making progress.

Comment and share how your kids are thinking logically!

You can check out my Facebook page about Math workshops for parents, teachers and kids here. 

What we as parents need to do about education

According to Alif Ailan, an education reform NGO:

1- Half of Pakistan’s population is under the age of 22. 

2- Pakistan’s fortune depends upon these young people and what they can do as adults.

3- They need a world-class education to succeed for themselves and for Pakistan, and yet:

- Fewer than half of Pakistani children ever complete a basic, primary school education, so over half enter adult, working life unable to read and write properly.

- Three out of every four Pakistani children lack basic mathematics skills.

- Pakistan ranks in the bottom eight countries in the world for its education spend.

-While India is spending over 4% of national income on education, Pakistan spends less than half that amount.
 
Pretty gloomy han..? Yes. A state of hopelessness as every year we only see decline in the state of education from school level upto university.

The only hopeful situation is when we hear about individuals who make astonishing progress on their own with the help of their parents and community of supporting people like teachers and mentors.

So what as parent WE can do instead of lamenting the disappointing state of education.

I gave it a thought and looked around and found three steps which I believe will have the triggering effect if we collectively move forward.

1- Pledge for the betterment and join the movement. Here is what I found and thought would share with you mommies and daddies.

    

2- Enroll our kids in programs initiated by professionals which are themselves parents and are bringing change to the society by introducing new and innovative courses, workshops and tours to let the kids explore the exciting new possibilities and have fun at the same time.

3- Initiate our own such program at a smaller level and putting our share of the hope in the youth that is both our responsibility and asset.

Comment and share this post.

You can check out my Facebook page about Math workshops for parents, teachers and kids here.