Frenzied Daddy

One of the things I’m happy about from my childhood is the math. Yeah, this is where I remind dad that he wouldn’t let me have a calculator until I didn’t need one. Math and I get along pretty well. It’s kind of odd that reluctance to do math contributed to my dropping out of the Chemistry path in college, though. I enjoyed science too- especially Chem but I got tired of doing the “where could the electron be” equations and finally gave up.

Anyway, the DQ was doing her homework last night and asked me if some large ungainly number like 23001 could be divisible by three. I told her that 2+3+1 was 6 and 6 was a multiple of three, so yes. I think I picked that rule up in Junior High. We were doing some sort of factoring exercise and the teacher showed us that rule. So we could do any number was divisible by 2, 5, 10, and now 3, 6, 9 too ( if it’s divisible by 2 and also 3 then it’s divisible by 6, if the numbers add up to a multiple of 9 then it’s also divisible by nine ). I could never remember the fairly complicated rule for sevens, though. “Sevens are hard” I told DQ last night.

Ms B was surprised to learn that rule of threes. She caught on quick though because she’s a smart cookie. She agreed that sevens are hard.

So in my daily news reading, I was surprised to come across this article: “Is 91 Prime?” . One of those strange coincidences of the world.

Here’s their answer to the sevens conundrum:

Is 8638 divisible by 7?
863 - 2*8 = 847 (subtract twice the last digit)
84 - 2*7 = 70 (subtract twice the last digit)
70 = 7 * 10, which is divisible by 7 -- therefore 8638 is divisible by 7

That seems like too much work to me. It’s actually faster in this case for me to look at “7 goes into 8638… goes into 8 remainder 1, goes into 16 remainder 2, goes into 23 remainder 2, goes into 28 even, so yes. Sort of a division only worrying about the remainder.

Anyway, that article actually explains why the threes rule above works. It has to do with the decimal system. I almost understand it. One of the comments was also very interesting about square roots: the difference of two square roots is not prime. So 91 is not prime ( sorry to spoil the ending ) because 1) seven goes into 9 remainder 2 then seven goes into 21 remainder 0 and 2) (10×10)-(3×3)=91.

Easy, huh? What about 133? Are there two squares that differ by 133?

A ninth grader in Tennessee has been charged with theft and sent to court for stealing … a forty cent lunch. Fifteen year old Jon Riker receives a reduced lunch at Gallatin’s Station Camp High School. One day last semester, his mother forgot to give him the forty cents for lunch. He was hungry at lunch and he went through the line and didn’t pay. He received a three day suspension and a court date.

Ok, so the kid did take lunch without paying for it. But forty cents is a little silly. The problem is the school’s no tolerance stance on lunch thefts. I think a more appropriate solution could have been found, perhaps involving dish washing, or detention, or something.

In the mother’s defense, she’s been a little frenzied herself. They have a family of six, and tje youngest had brain surgery recently. I have lunch money slip my mind too, but I just get an annoyed phone call from the cafeteria lady who reminds me to send in some lunch money.

In the spirit of “sending in lunch money,” some people are banding together to send lunch to kids at the school; sending forty cents to

Station Camp High School
600 Lower Station Camp Creek Road (1040 Bison Trail)
Gallatin, TN 37066
Attn: Principal Art Crook

With a kind note suggesting he use the forty cents to buy lunch for other kids who don’t have the money, and following that up with a suggestion to find creative, appropriate punishments for kids who steal lunch.

source

I’ve never done this sort of thing before. I think I’m going to start a “book club” specifically for parents reading “young adult” books. I’m already reading the books, it’ll be good to talk about them as well. And I was moved by an article Grandma P brought over about how eighth graders tend to stop reading so much. So my fifth grader who is reading hundreds of books a year (yes, really ) will probably be reading much fewer when she leaves middle school.

Middle school, by the way, is next year.

The Oregonian article reminded me how much better readers do in school; reading and writing skills are much improved in kids who read for fun. And one of the best ways to help kids read for fun is to help match kids to books they might like.

So, thinking about the flames in the discussion around The Golden Compass, I think I’m going to use that as a springboard. So, I’ll be looking for some sort of “reading guide” that’s not totally pro-or-anti Pullman, and I’ll be putting a… schedule(?) for lack of a better word.

I’m using the Portland Parents site for it, aiming it at other parents who are concerned about the same things. Let’s see how far I can take it. Wonder what we’ll read for March.

Gever Tulley has a list of five dangerous things that you should allow your kids to do.

He persuasively argues that allowing your child the freedom to explore will help them learn bigger life lessons than ones “you can learn from Dora the Explorer.” One of his examples is fire; teach your kid to play with fire and actually let them poke around with it. Learning how to control and work with a mysterious and primal force is one of the great things that people learn. It teaches them about intake, combustion, and exhaust, the three crucial pieces of “fire” that you’ll need for a fire.

( this quote is somewhat paraphrased because I suck at typing).
when we remove every sharp object, every pokey bit from the world, then the next time the child comes into contact with something not made out of round plastic, they’ll hurt themselves with it. We rob our children of valuable opportunities to learn how to interact with the world around them. And despite our best efforts and intentions, kids will always figure out how to do the most dangerous thing they can in whatever environment they’re in.”

The video linked above is somewhat less than 10 minutes and is worth the time spent watching it. He’s very persuasive.

Mark Dominus has some interesting posts on his site, about bringing up his daughter. I really liked his post about Santa Claus. And if you read his post on Santa Claus, you’ll see a relationship of parents and children to fiction and lies (he doesn’t mean that in a pejorative way, and I’m leaving that connotation open, but there’s a crucial difference between the story of the Little Red Hen and the story of Santa Claus that just the broad brush of “fiction” doesn’t cover.)

I found it interesting because on the two peas forums, they discuss how some parents will tell their kids that Santa Claus won’t come if the kids are bad; thus making SC into an authority figure. And there’s an interesting connection of all thoe concepts that I don’t feel comfortable pursuing right now because I know that the DQ reads these posts :).

Anyway, his daughter ( Iris ) is “not a vegetarian”. He’s explained that meat comes from animals to her, and she’s pretty comfortable with relevation. It was apparently prompted by her inadvertent exposure to the movie Charlotte’s Web ( on a plane flight ) and how Wilbur is in danger of becoming a ham.

I liked his story of taking her to the chinese food place and feeding her fish that was caught specifically for her. She’s a fun kid.f

And damn, because I was going to rush right on out there and buy it. I’m always looking for more tips on how to raise two independent-minded girls to be fantastic contributors to society. In case you don’t know, Lynne Spears is the mother of Britney and Jamie Lynn.

I feel bad for Jamie Lynn. She’s a cute kid and she and her boyfriend were stupid. In her case, I blame her mother for not teaching her about prevention, and … hell, if you were Britney Spears’ sister, couldn’t you figure out how babies were made?

People said it, so it must be true!

The DQ is branching out this year.

Last year she volunteered to help in the cafeteria at school and stayed after school for band. This year, she’s on safety patrol, she’s helping in the library, she’s staying after school for band and she’s trying out for the school play.

They’re doing Alice in Wonderland; she was originally aiming herself at the Queen of Hearts, but she’s changed her mind and is reading for the Gryphon instead. She likes the Gryphon because “he’s more snide and sarcastic.” She knows she might not be selected, and has some fallback plans.

We’re raising a winner!

Blunt Money ( catchy name ) has an interesting post on the fear of looking poor. Why we don’t order “just water” when we’re out with friends, or why we sign up for multiple potluck items.

Actually I don’t have a problem ordering water. But I do hate feeling like “I look poor.” Why do I hate to take bottles and cans back to the supermarket? Because that’s what poor people do. Why do I hate to sell my books back to Powell’s? Because it’s a sign that I’m broke. And to me, if you have more money, you have more books; they go hand in hand. So selling the books shows that I’m broke and then having fewer books in the house shows that I’m more poor ( relative to before I sold the books ).

Actually I’m working on that last one; I’m trying to treat the books in my life less as a sign of wealth and more as “clutter.” If I’m not going to read it again, or if it’s going to be many years before one of my kids needs it, then it can go. Although some of the books are still here. The David Eddings Belgariad, for instance.

I hate people coming over because the house is a mess and I feel that it looks like we don’t have the time to clean it. ( Why don’t I just clean it? Good question.) I mentioned before how I hated having people over when I lived in Anchorage.

Yeah, I have a strange phobia of looking like I’m broke. But I’m working against it. However, that doesn’t mean I’m about to stop paying for the DQ to have hot school lunch, or keep her out of band; I don’t want her to appear poor either. Struggles. All the time. Anyway, it’s an interesting post, and y’all should read it and consider what appearances you try to avoid too.

Just fyi, I updated the wishlists page to reflect stuff for the girls. For those of you who ask.