bogusia's blog

The other day we went to the Zoo with my boys (a five year old and a three year old). In the car, we were talking about which animals the kids would really like to see, and what animals would be there, etc. I was pumped because the kids love animals and showing them an elephant in a book and in real life doesn't compare. In a book, there's no movement, no comparison in size with the surroundings, no texture. My five year old son was especially excited, and he had a million questions for me about the zoo and the animals: "How do the giraffes drink waterwhen they're so tall? Do giraffes have a red tongue or a black one, like daddy says?" etc. Then we got the tickets and a map of the Zoo. So exciting! Jakub, the five year old, couldn't stop looking at the map and planning our trip around the Zoo: "We'll go see the elephants first, and then the Rhinos and then this and then that. I really want to see the eagle and the owl and the kangaroos." I was so happy. We came to the perfect spot. We also got this cool "passport" where the kids could stamp at a station near each animal to show they've been there, seen the particular animal. Also an awesome idea, I thought. Then we started our journey.

I got this emailed to me. Some of these patterns were really cool, so I'm posting it. Check out these cool patterns with numbers:

I think I am one of the least "protective" parents in the world. I have a five year old, a two year old and now a two month old. They're all boys, and when they get wound up, they absolutely drive me crazy. But I love them to death, and of course I don't want them to get hurt. But on the other hand I know they have to get hurt to understand the world.(Somebody once told me that you don't really know how to ride a horse until you get thrown off the horse - same sort of idea.)

I really get annoyed at people that seem to think I am jeopardizing my sons' lives in some way and try to "fix" my way of raising MY kids. I remember clearly times when strangers or friends told me or my kids what to do (or more likely what not to do). I feel I have a very good sense of what my children can do, what they are capable of, how far they'll go. If I think my child isn't in danger, I don't think a stranger should interfere.

The other weekend, we went to Kingston, Ontario. There, we visited the beautiful Queens University. I was very impressed with the arcitechture and the setting. The weather was nice, so we went for a stroll along the water. In a few different spots, we found burned papers, burned tests, burned notes. I took a few pictures, and even kept one page because it gave me pleasure to see it. Here is what I kept:

This is the time, end of school, end of exams, to burn everything and anything to do with a course you hated (and even sometimes the ones you loved). It is a sort of cleansing of the palet, cleansing of the brain of all the bad times, all the hours of studying and agonizing over silly tests, silly assignments. A way of starting the summer with a blank slate. Its a very visual way of "forgetting everything about the course minutes after leaving the examination room".

I came across a cool search engine, but not a search engine really - it's more of a computational knowledge engine. You can type in any calculation and it will solve it for you. Also it will display all things related.

For instance, if you type in "tan(x)" it will show you the graph of tan(x), the expansion, different formulas / identities, properties, etc. If you type in sin(60) it will find the exact value for you, but also give you a decimal approximation, the right triangle with the representation. You can also do harder expressions and more complex functions, and it will do integrals, derivatives, etc.

But it's not only good for math. It also is great for science. For instance, you want to balance a chemical equation, but you don't know how. So you type in: C2H6+O2 --> H2O+CO2. The Wolfram|Alpha engine does it for you:

Not only that, but it gives you the thermodynamic properties of each of the reactants and products, the equilibrium constant, the structure diagrams of each of the reactants and products, etc. Awesome!

A teacher from Sherbrooke, Quebec wrote an interesting comment (along with a reference to an article from October, 2005). This teacher worked 19 years as a teacher and now is making $71,000 (before taxes that is). Here is what she wrote:

I too was astonished to see the huge salary gap between Quebec and everyone else. When teachers in this province say we are underpaid, we really mean it. Check out this part-time job article from 2005:

After-school special
Dawn taught math by day, but after the final bell had rung, it was phys-ed all the way
By JEAN-PHILIPPE PINEAULT -- Sun Media

MONTREAL -- Frustrated by her meagre salary, a Montreal math teacher took advantage of school holidays to work -- as an escort.

Using the pseudonym Dawn, the 29-year-old, who recently retired from teaching, sold her sexual services by night and taught high school math by day.

For four years, Dawn divided her time between the classroom and hotel rooms, without her colleagues' knowledge.

The woman told Sun Media that her teacher's salary wasn't enough. A first-year teacher earns $35,000 a year, but will end up with around $24,000 after taxes.

You will only get this if you're a major physics geek (To see it bigger, click on the image):

This is very funny. This is also why I always tell my kids that UNITS ARE VERY IMPORTANT. Enjoy.

1. Take an eight by eight grid (with 64 squares).

2. Fill it randomly with digits 1 through 8.

3. Now start at any number on the left most column.

4. Move that many spaces down your grid (going up to the top of the next column if you run out of space).

5. Whatever number you land on, take that many steps down the grid, moving to the top of the next column if you run out of space, and continue.

6. Continue this procedure, until you run out of room on the whole grid.

7. Mark the last spot you landed on.

8. Start again with a new number on the left most column of your grid. Redo the whole procedure.

9. Try again, starting with yet another number on the left most column of the grid. And again. And again.

9. What happened?

I tried this cool little experiment, and to my amazement, at the end, I always landed on the same square (the three with the red check mark) no matter where I started on the most left column. Here is my grid:

"This is George. He lived with his friend, the man with the yellow hat. He was a good little monkey and always very curious.

This is how most of my favourite stories start. I loved Curious George when I was a little girl, and even more when I grew up. My friends always knew what to get me... that anything "Curious George" themed would please me. In fact, for one Christmas I remember getting "Curious George" themed candles, and of course I own all the books, all the stories, and even the movie.

When I had kids of my own, it was only a matter of time before I made them fall in love with Curious George as much as I had. That is the only cartoon I would let them watch in the morning, I would read them the ingenious stories every night, and they fell in love with the "good little monkey" that I loved all these years.

And then today, I was talking to my oldest son Jakub. He'll be five years old in a few weeks. We were talking about differences in similar animals. For instance,

"What is the difference between a cheetah and a jaguar?"