Here are two of Tia making cookies before our trip.
(by Katie)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
too many
We took too many photos on our trip. I am overwhelmed by them.
Here are two of Tia making cookies before our trip.
(by Katie)
Here are two of Tia making cookies before our trip.
(by Katie)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
But I could draw one...
We were visiting the F-Family in the Midwest and we were watching planes in the sky... "Did you know Uncle Don makes airplanes?" I asked Tia. She was impressed.
I asked her if she wanted to make planes one day. She thought about it... She said, "I don't think I can make one, but I could draw one."
(We just saw evidence of some metacognitive skills--realizing one's limitations.)
I asked her if she wanted to make planes one day. She thought about it... She said, "I don't think I can make one, but I could draw one."
(We just saw evidence of some metacognitive skills--realizing one's limitations.)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
We'll avoid the obvious title
And just post the picture of Tia looking cute wearing her Mom's shoes.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
oh deer!
The little girls (Kira and Tia) decided they were baby deer. Natalie is their owner. Natalie walks them and takes care of them (the ribbons around their waist are their leashes). The deer run around and Tia-deer sometimes tries to escape. (Play is fun!)
Friday, July 18, 2008
Math is fun!
Today, Natalie and I went to the grocery store. We found the gelatin capsules she likes (see picture) that you can put in hot water and "hatch" dinosaurs or other fun critters. We got dinosaurs and sea animals. As we were walking through the store she asked, "How many do we (meaning Natalie, Kira and Tia) each get?" She started to wildly guess... 5, no 3, no 6.... I stopped her and said, "Let's see if we can figure it out."
She looked very puzzled. I asked her how many capsules were in the package. She looked and said 12.
I asked her how many little girls there were and she said 3!
As she was looking at the package she noticed that the capsules were arranged in 3 columns and she pointed that out to me. I asked her why that was important and she said there were 3 rows (that's what she called the columns) and 3 girls so they could each get all the ones in the row. I asked her how many that would be and she said 4!
Whoa. I believe we've just started exploring the concept of breaking a big number down into smaller numbers!
Then, she said, but we each get 8! There are two packages and we get 4 from each package so 4 + 4 = 8. I was so proud! My little math girl!
We continued to discuss how many each little girl would get since there were 3 little girls and 12 capsules in one package. When I thought she "got it" I asked her what if there were only 9 dinosaurs... Then how many would each little girl get? She counted on her fingers and proudly told me 3!
She's starting to get it! Later, Grandma F asked her how many would each little girl get if there were 15 capsules. We hit a limit in terms of fingers and working memory for Natalie. I gave her a piece of paper and asked her to try to figure it out, but she didn't know what to do with the paper. I then drew 15 lines but I drew them in sets of 3 and counted to 15 as I drew them for her. I drew....
||| (and counted 1, 2, 3)
||| (4, 5, 6)
||| (7, 8, 9)
||| (10, 11, 12)
||| (13, 14, 15)
I then asked her how many would each little girl get if there were 15 capsules in the package. She instantly said 5! She is getting it (when the artifact is arranged in a meaningful manner).
I'm going to spend a moment being geeky and discussing the last interaction in terms of sociocultural theory of Cognitive Development (Vygotsky). I'm thinking Vygotsky would be thrilled that I have a great example of how higher mental functions emerge through socially shared processes.
What I wrote about above is the first stage of internalizing a socially shared process. Vygotsky believed as children master an understanding, they have to master the understanding twice. First they "get it" at the intermental level. This means they are understanding what is happening with the help of another through the social interaction, or in the space between the two minds. In this example, I do most of the work and Natalie follows along. As Natalie understands the work she will internalize what occurred when we were together, and then she will do the process for solving the problem on her own or at the intramental level.
(You can visit this web page if you want to learn more about Vygotsky.)
Vygotsky would also be thrilled to note that in addition to the social interaction, we were using psychological and cultural tools (counting sets of numbers and drawing on paper) to help mediate her thinking. Vygotsky also believes cultural tools significantly shape thinking.
We could also discuss the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is defined as the distance between what a learner can do on their own to what a learner can do when assisted by someone who has already mastered the material. On her own, Natalie couldn't figure out what she needed to do to solve the problem of "How many dinosaurs would each little girl get (3 little girls) if there were 15 capsules in the package?" When I started drawing the picture, Natalie and I entered the Zone.
What's important is that the learner has to be nearly ready for assistance. In this case, Natalie was ready for me to help her understand the problem and I was able to support her learning through social interaction and cultural and psychological tools. There are some things that I couldn't have explained to Natalie about numbers regardless of how long, or of how many different ways I tried because she wouldn't be ready to learn them. The ZPD is all about what the learner is ready for next.
Okay... there's more we could discuss about Vygotskian theory, but we'll save it for another day.
She looked very puzzled. I asked her how many capsules were in the package. She looked and said 12.
I asked her how many little girls there were and she said 3!
As she was looking at the package she noticed that the capsules were arranged in 3 columns and she pointed that out to me. I asked her why that was important and she said there were 3 rows (that's what she called the columns) and 3 girls so they could each get all the ones in the row. I asked her how many that would be and she said 4!
Whoa. I believe we've just started exploring the concept of breaking a big number down into smaller numbers!
Then, she said, but we each get 8! There are two packages and we get 4 from each package so 4 + 4 = 8. I was so proud! My little math girl!
We continued to discuss how many each little girl would get since there were 3 little girls and 12 capsules in one package. When I thought she "got it" I asked her what if there were only 9 dinosaurs... Then how many would each little girl get? She counted on her fingers and proudly told me 3!
She's starting to get it! Later, Grandma F asked her how many would each little girl get if there were 15 capsules. We hit a limit in terms of fingers and working memory for Natalie. I gave her a piece of paper and asked her to try to figure it out, but she didn't know what to do with the paper. I then drew 15 lines but I drew them in sets of 3 and counted to 15 as I drew them for her. I drew....
||| (and counted 1, 2, 3)
||| (4, 5, 6)
||| (7, 8, 9)
||| (10, 11, 12)
||| (13, 14, 15)
I then asked her how many would each little girl get if there were 15 capsules in the package. She instantly said 5! She is getting it (when the artifact is arranged in a meaningful manner).
I'm going to spend a moment being geeky and discussing the last interaction in terms of sociocultural theory of Cognitive Development (Vygotsky). I'm thinking Vygotsky would be thrilled that I have a great example of how higher mental functions emerge through socially shared processes.
What I wrote about above is the first stage of internalizing a socially shared process. Vygotsky believed as children master an understanding, they have to master the understanding twice. First they "get it" at the intermental level. This means they are understanding what is happening with the help of another through the social interaction, or in the space between the two minds. In this example, I do most of the work and Natalie follows along. As Natalie understands the work she will internalize what occurred when we were together, and then she will do the process for solving the problem on her own or at the intramental level.
(You can visit this web page if you want to learn more about Vygotsky.)
Vygotsky would also be thrilled to note that in addition to the social interaction, we were using psychological and cultural tools (counting sets of numbers and drawing on paper) to help mediate her thinking. Vygotsky also believes cultural tools significantly shape thinking.
We could also discuss the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is defined as the distance between what a learner can do on their own to what a learner can do when assisted by someone who has already mastered the material. On her own, Natalie couldn't figure out what she needed to do to solve the problem of "How many dinosaurs would each little girl get (3 little girls) if there were 15 capsules in the package?" When I started drawing the picture, Natalie and I entered the Zone.
What's important is that the learner has to be nearly ready for assistance. In this case, Natalie was ready for me to help her understand the problem and I was able to support her learning through social interaction and cultural and psychological tools. There are some things that I couldn't have explained to Natalie about numbers regardless of how long, or of how many different ways I tried because she wouldn't be ready to learn them. The ZPD is all about what the learner is ready for next.
Okay... there's more we could discuss about Vygotskian theory, but we'll save it for another day.
The world...
The world isn't all about spiderman and batman .... The world is all about princesses.
Kira (sometime when she was three as remembered by Natalie age 6.5).
Kira (sometime when she was three as remembered by Natalie age 6.5).
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Arrrrr Matey!
Tia's looking forward to September 19.... also known as Talk like a Pirate Day!
(This is her new swimsuit cover up.)
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
'cause everyone knows
Sandwiches with frilly toothpicks taste better! (So says Fancy Nancy.)
Kira has been wanting frilly toothpicks FOR EVEH! I finally found some at the grocery store! Yippee!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Curl report (4)
They are still there. When her hair is damp, you can see they are there. When her hair is dry, it's pretty straight.
Who knows what her hair will do!
See earlier curl reports here.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Flip 4 U!
Kira does these flips at Gymnastics. Here she did it at the park ALL BY HERSELF! Cool, eh?
Thursday, July 10, 2008
They gave me a placemat!
That's what Tia told me at the end of swimming lessons.
The "placemat" was a yellow sheet of paper with her report of how she did in the class. I think she thought it was for eating off of--her sisters make placemats out of paper sometimes. Instead of being a placemat for eating, it did place her in the next level class. She did GREAT! She is our little fish. The teacher said,
Go Tia!
Natalie and Kira both moved up this summer to new levels and are both really close to moving up to the next level. Kira made lots of progress. She doesn't love the water, but now she puts her face in without complaining. Natalie is almost able to swim 25 yards without assistance. Natalie learned to go to the bottom of the pool (5 feet) and get rings. Tia learned to do the same in the shallow 2-3 foot end.
The "placemat" was a yellow sheet of paper with her report of how she did in the class. I think she thought it was for eating off of--her sisters make placemats out of paper sometimes. Instead of being a placemat for eating, it did place her in the next level class. She did GREAT! She is our little fish. The teacher said,
I recommend that Tia move up to Eel. She is an extremely confident swimmer and has no problem putting her head underwater or swimming alone, even where she can't stand.
Go Tia!
Natalie and Kira both moved up this summer to new levels and are both really close to moving up to the next level. Kira made lots of progress. She doesn't love the water, but now she puts her face in without complaining. Natalie is almost able to swim 25 yards without assistance. Natalie learned to go to the bottom of the pool (5 feet) and get rings. Tia learned to do the same in the shallow 2-3 foot end.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
MerNatalie
Natalie had me take more pictures of her as a mermaid. I took a few, we downloaded them, and she looked at them and exclaimed (in horror), "My tail looks fat! OH NO!" I laughed, we took some more pictures with the tail more carefully arranged, and then cut her image out. She decorated it. Presenting... MerNatalie. She is sitting on a rock in the ocean.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Little Mermaids
Nat and Kira are little mermaids. (They wrap their legs in blankets to simulate tails.) Natalie wants to be a mermaid when she grows up.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
See how they grow
Here's Nat and her garden.
If you look carefully, you can see some peppers on this plant...
and some little tomatoes.
If you look carefully, you can see some peppers on this plant...
and some little tomatoes.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Party preparations
This week was busy! We had a Fourth of July party and we cleaned (power-washed the decks) and all sorts of things. The weather on the fourth was gorgeous! It was 75 degrees in the heat of the day. Here you can see two of the little girls making party favors (Natalie decided to make everyone a flag). They cut, the painted, they glued and it took hours (literally!). They had fun.
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