Have you ever looked at your child’s math lesson and thought, I have no clue how to teach this. I’m clean out of ideas? If so, you’re not alone. We all face times when we’re simply not sure what to do or how to present something.
A few weeks ago, I knew I needed to write a blog entry on this blog, but I just couldn’t think of anything helpful to say. After a staring at my monitor blankly for a little while, I got up and headed out on a walk. While I walked, I prayed. What was something fall-related parents could do with their children? A leaf just starting to turn colors caught my eye. I wonder if there’s any way to integrate math with the falling leaves? I wondered.
Coming home, I decided to do a little search online on “changing leaves.” I later refined the search to “leaves math.” I found a wide variety of websites offering suggestions for ways to use leaves and math. Although I didn’t like many of the ideas as they were, they inspired other ideas.
For example, http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11901 had some interesting facts about leaves, such as that maple trees lose about 600,000 leaves each fall! I thought of how fun it would be to have a child try to count all the leaves that fall in your yard, pointing out that while this is impossible for man it’s not impossible for God. Surely the God who calls each star by name and knows the number of hairs on every person’s head also knows the number of leaves that are on (and falling off) each tree. He is truly MUCH greater than us!!!
In the end, other ideas came, and I didn’t even end up using my leaf idea for my blog. As I hit the post button on my finished blog entry, I thanked the Lord for giving me the ideas that I needed.
If you’re feeling out of ideas, I’d encourage you to take heart. God has the ideas you need. Seek Him. Ask Him. And watch Him give you the inspiration you need in His timing and way.
P.S. If you live in a part of the world where the leaves are changing colors, you may want to do your own search for “leaves math.” Then head out and enjoy the fall weather while you teach your children to use math to explore God’s creation!
I’m a sinner saved by grace through Jesus Christ. I’m also a writer—I’ve been writing ever since I could hold a pen. I…
I’m really enjoying your blog/website. I’m so glad I found it! Praise the Lord 🙂 We are doing some revamping with the way we do math, looking at more ‘living math’ methods… I’m sure you’ve heard the term? (I’ve just blogged the first part of a series about it on my blog if you’re interested)
So, in my research for new ways of exploring math, I came across your book at TOS (actually I think it was featured in the e-mail they just sent out?). That got me searching ‘Biblical Math’, which in turn brought me to your site! Thanks so much for your insights.
I’m probably going to buy your e-book, I’m looking forward to it, and may even have my boys read it. Once I’ve read it, I’m thinking I’ll link to you from my blog.
You got me to thinking of a math activity using leaves… you could gather up a wheelbarrow full, count them and then make a line or bar graph or even a pie graph figure based on their color, shape or sizes (that is if you have several different type trees around)!
Blessings,
Amy
tarapoto, peru
http://fisheracademy.blogspot.com
I have had the same thing happen so many times in my lesson planning – God is so faithful to give me fresh inspiration! And He gives me understanding in the things He wants me to teach and He does it in His time.
We serve a mighty God!
Thanks for the wonderful reminder!
Warmly,
Mandi